Mool noun noisy confusion; earth, soil
‘ … “For Johnnie kept mool from the graveyard and bone dust, and hen’s blood and all manner of such things…”’ (The Fiery Cross)
Mool is an example of what linguists call a homonym, that is a word that has multiple different meanings and origins.
In Raiderland (1904) Samuel Rutherford Crockett uses the word in its sense of turmoil: ‘Somewhere in the distance he divined the mool and brool of the showyard… “Cattle shows - faugh!”’
In other uses, mool denotes soil or earth. Our earliest example of this dates at least as far back as 1578: 'Quhene [when] scho [she] come on Scottis ground scho … inclynnit hir self to the earth and tuik the mullis thairof and kissit' (Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, The History and Chronicles of Scotland). This sense is often used in a burial or funereal context. There’s an example of that from Burns (c.1796, Poems & Songs): ‘Or worthy friends laid i’ the mools, Sad sight to see!’ And from Walter Scott (Antiquary III, 1816): ‘When ye laid his head in the grave … ye saw the mouls laid on an honest lad that likit you weel.’
Mool as mould (‘… cuttit aff ony moulie bitties…’) is probably from Old Norse mugla/mygla – to grow mouldy.
Another older meaning is chilblains, from Old Scots mowl (chilblain), itself related to Old French mule (a slipper, a chilblain). According to The Laird of Logan, subtitled Anecdotes and tales Illustrative of the Wit and Humour of Scotland (1868): ‘Superstition has a cure for these painful affections of the extremities. Go to a strange door at night, and tap gently; when questioned from within, “Wha’s there?” answer, “Moullie-heils, tak’ ye them there,” when the complaint is immediately transferred to the person within.
An appropriate example to end with is moulie drap, the last drop of liquor left in the bottom of a glass. This is probably related to its sense of miserliness - ‘Ye’ll get nothin oot a that mooly aul devil.’ (The Patter, Michael Munro, 1985).