Loon noun a young man, a lad
‘… “but I’ve grown a bit fond of the immoral wee loon. I shouldna like to see him murdered in cold blood.”’ (The Fiery Cross)
Loon, and its female counterpart, quine, are two of the words which are instantly identifiable with the north-east of Scotland and its distinctive Doric dialect. In September, the Aberdeen Press and Journal interviewed Peter Fraser, whose book Dee the Business provides Doric translations of management jargon. The author explains: ‘So much business management terminology is daunting and can make the simplest of tasks into something that seems complex. I’m jist an Aiberdeen loon and I’d rather read plain Doric than highfalutin management speak.’
However, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, loon could variously denote a cheat, a thief, a violent criminal or a sexually immoral man. An example of the criminal sense comes from the Scots Magazine (1701): ‘She followed him, and called back againe, you fals loun will you murder your father and my husband both.’ (Loon is related to Middle English lowen, rogue, but the origin of both words has yet to be established.)
At one stage loon also meant low-born, demonstrated here by Hugh Haliburton in Dunbar (1895): ‘From lip of lord to lip of loon.’
The neutral use of the word to refer to a man or boy did not begin to emerge as the dominant sense until around the nineteenth century. In the late eighteenth century we find this usage gaining ground, appearing in works like Tobias Smollett’s The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, in the following toast: ‘Lang life to the wylie loon that gangs a-field with a toom poke at his lunzie [an empty bag at his hip], and comes hame with a sackful of siller’.
Over time the more judgemental uses have faded. Edward Chisnall evokes the perfect scent referencing a faithful young man in Yer Ain, The Young Yins and the Auld Yin (2021): ‘It’s a scent … tae be pit, by the little fowk, in bottles blawn in liquid gless blawn wi winter reeds and made o dreams’ dust. It’s jist herbs o the shadowy bank, ye see, a touch o the sea, a pinch o hertbrak frae a brave and faithful loon.’