PEENIE
THE Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) defines peenie as “Scots reduced form of English pinafore, especially as worn by a child”. It has since come to mean any apron.
My grannie’s peenie was of a type also described in DSL as a “woman’s (wrapover) apron”. It was an overall which, on washing days (because of the heat), she wore with just her underwear.
With Halloween in mind, the witch in Thomas Clark’s Scots translation of The Tinderbox (2020, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales in Scots) has a peenie with magical properties. “Dinna fash ma braw laddie … ye’ll hae ma peenie wi ye. Jist sit it doon on the flair and pit the dug on tap o it. Then open the kist and tak oot aw the copper pieces ye can cairry. Weel… unless ye’d prefer sillar, that is.”
By extension, one can have (or be) a pain in the peenie – meaning a pain in the stomach – which can be caused by anything from acute appendicitis to a person to be avoided for whatever reason. In the Dundee Courier of November 2020, a writer observes: “However safe anyone says it is, I’m wary of eating the flesh [of yew berries], just in case something horrid has leeched out of the stone and gives me a pain in the peenie. Now, that’s a fine old-fashioned Scottish saying which I doubt you’ll hear echoing round the hi-tech walls of Ninewells Hospital”.
I hope our readers suffer no pains in their peenies.
Scots Word of the Week is written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel