4 Wind and Storm

Wind can blaw, souch, or skirl. It can arrive as a flan, a flaw or a gandiegow. A thin wind will cut like a knife. But, as they say, ‘It is an ill wind that blows nobody good’ and as Robert Henryson showed his narrative poem The Testament of Cresseid (1500), there are times when the wind is welcome: the northin wind had purifyit the air. There is nothing like a guid blaw or a gandaguster to improve air quality. Even if the wind carries with it rain or sleet and works itself up to a Storm Force 10, some people, like Burns’ Tam o Shanter do not seem to mind: 

The storm without might  [roar] and rustle,

Tam didna  the storm a whistle.

For Burns, wind could even have romantic associations:

Of a the airts the wind can blaw, 

I dearly like the west,

For there the bonnie lassie lives,

The lassie I lo’e best.

On the other hand, storms can be devastating and some of the words associated with stormy weather, such as attery or gurlie have secondary meanings which reflect unpleasant character traits or loss and suffering. 

So you just have to temper your nose to the east win as weel’s the south, or in other words take the rough with the smooth. Scots has words for gentle zephyrs and swirling gales – have a blast reading about them!