This Essential English-Scots Dictionary is published by Dictionaries of the Scots Language SCIO, the nation’s authority on Scots. It provides Scots equivalents for over 4,000 English words and phrases selected from our Concise English-Scots Dictionary and published in our Scots School Dictionary and Essential Scots Dictionary. The content is based entirely on material collected over several decades by William Graham, author of The Scots Word Book (1977), which he generously donated to us in the 1990s. Aside from some light editing, the content remains that of Graham’s original material and so may now be out of date in many respects.
It is important to bear in mind that Scots and English have always shared much – perhaps most – of their vocabulary. So, for example, ‘one, two, three’ is no less Scots than the exclusively (and in some cases hyper-local or dated) Scots forms recorded by William Graham.
The content of the Essential English-Scots Dictionary has been rated suitable for everyone aged 9 and over.
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For a comprehensive Scots-English dictionary, visit our Dictionaries of the Scots Language Online. Information about our other publications is available here.