This term for a mid-morning snack given to a school child is recorded relatively late in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) in the form of an example from Michael Munro’s 1985 The Patter: “A snack given to a schoolchild for consumption at playtime. Despite the name this isn’t necessarily a sandwich: ‘What have ye got for yer playpiece?’ ‘A Mars bar.’”
The term was recorded in jocular adult discourse in the following exchange taken from an interview in The Herald of September 1994: “Do you feel threatened by the New Kids on the Box at Scottish Television? Only when they try to steal my playpiece”.
In the 21st century the following account of a concert appeared in the Press and Journal of October 2004: “In between pawky-humour performances - and a traditional 11am ‘play piece’ that had nothing to do with plays but a much-needed interval refreshment - the youngsters got together for bothy ballad singing with Dorothy Taylor”.
Finding more evidence, especially earlier evidence, is part of our mission here at DSL. The following extract from Aberdeen Press and Journal of March 1963 shows that food poverty is not just a 21st century phenomenon: “A class of pupils at Banff Academy gave up their ‘play piece’ yesterday - all in aid of a good cause. For the pupils, all of Primary 4a, gave the money they normally spend on their ‘piece’ to their teacher as a contribution to Freedom From Hunger Week”. Apparently, they raised 15 shillings (75p) for the cause.
Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
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