Besom noun a broom, a cheeky person
‘“Yes, go! Black-beard put in, glowering. “We’ve no need of your help, you interfering little bizzom!”’ (The Fiery Cross)
There are many ways of spelling this word and the sense we are concerned with here is defined in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) as: ‘A term of contempt applied to a person, generally a woman; sometimes to a woman of loose character, sometimes jocularly to a woman or young girl.’
An early citation of the word comes from John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scots Language (1808): ‘Bysim is still used as a term highly expressive of contempt for a woman of an unworthy character.’ Another spelling variation, but also showing that the term was in earlier use.
Later in the nineteenth century, John Service wrote in his Dr Duguid (1887): ‘I never in my life would let ony bardy bizzum lichtlie [disparage] me.’ So not only was this bizzum rude, she was scornful too. However, was she a woman?
Actually, the term is not always applied to women. More recent examples uncover at least a couple of male besoms. A nasty male besom got more than he bargained for when trying to mug a Scottish granny, as this example from the Daily Record (November 2018) describes: ‘A brave pensioner chased a man down a street after he grabbed her purse out of her hand and fled. Lilian Brown ran after the thief, yelling: “Come back here ya wee besom!”’ And here we have a mother talking about her sons in the Evening Times of January 2014: ‘Blair and Alex are extremely close and get the chance to meet up at weekends. Denise says they have a typical brotherly relationship. She added: “Blair’s an absolute besom. He will work hard to get a rise out of Alex but it’s great to watch them together.”’
So besoms are usually girls but not always, and the term is often used affectionately, as in the following from The Herald of December 2018 (describing a panto dame): ‘His big-hearted Nurse Nellie MacDuff is a merrily raucous besom, with a boisterous bosom that also carries all before her.’ Which, of course, covers both sexes.