GRANDWEAN
THIS coming Mothering Sunday many mothers will look forward to a visit from their grandweans as well as a visit from their grown-up weans. Grandweans first appear in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) in D E Brown’s 1897 Clydeside Litterateurs: “Till grand-weans and great-grand-weans, clap and applaud”. However, DSL does not record the object of their applause.
Our next citation comes from the Herald of September 1992: “The Use of Language and That: A rare example of verbal talent overheard on a North Sea ferry. A Scottish granny is admonishing her half-German grandwean: ‘Gretchen! If ye dinnae stoap that you'll get yer heid in your hauns to play wi’.’”
A later example perhaps reflects the feelings of some grandparents. Grandwean visits can be exhausting – as in this from History on your Doorstep: The Reminiscences of the Ferguslie Elderly Forum (1993): “My mother said I like to see my grandweans but I like to see them going away”.
While looking for other examples many were found, among them the following from the Motherwell Times of May 1960: “Gilchrist’s beat music band, composed mostly of young lads from the scheme, gave the grandads and grannies an insight into what their teenage grandweans enjoy”.
Gregor Steele wrote a poem for DSL in 2021, called When Scotty said “Scunner”, in which our word also appears: “And the words wull pass tae ma wean’s wean’s wean, And their wean’s grandwean’s wean’s grandwean…”
I hope many grandweans will be enjoying the company of their grannies and grandads this Sunday.
Scots Word of the Week is written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
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