Then Yre come in with sturt and stryfe
His hand wes aye upoun his knyfe
(Dunbar)
The word anger comes from Old Norse angr, which may seem appropriate because the Vikings of the Sagas seem to have suffered quite a lot from anger and roused quite a bit in other people. But, in fact, the Old Norse word angr actually meant sorrow or affliction. Now, there is food for thought!
There is a popular misconception that the Scots are argumentative and aggressive. Not at all. We may have inherited a greater proportion of red-heads than most nations from the Vikings but we are a very peaceful people. Nevertheless, just now and again, historical events have awakened in us a sense of injustice and we have been roused to anger so, if you feel the need to have strong words with someone, Scots has a few choice words to offer.
- Anger
- Argie-bargie
- Blaw-bye
- Brulyie
- Bunnet
- Cangle
- Carfuffle
- Carnaptious
- Cattiewurrie
- Collieshangie
- Contermacious
- Cool
- Dirdum
- Dunt
- Flyte
- Forflutten
- Gie daggers
- Heckle
- Ire
- Misca
- Ootfa
- Pet
- Propugnacious
- Sherrack, shirrick, shirragle, shirrang, shirrakie, shirraglie
- Snash
- Stushie
- Tene
- Threap
- Tulyie, tulzie
- Wrath
- Wuid
An exercise for the foolhardy:
To cause any carnaptious person to become wuid with anger, try building your own insult by selecting combinations of words from the template below:
YOU ARE A
bowfin, clarty, manky, mingin, honkin, [Dirty and smelly]
lowpin, mawkit, lousy, scabby [bug-infested]
gameramus, gowk, numpty, nyaff, tube, sodie-heid, diddy [fool]
AND I AM GONNAE GIE YE
An Aberdeen sweetie [painful flick on the head with the thumb]
A Glasgow kiss [head butt]
a blatter, bluffert, chap, claucht, cloot, clour, crunt, dicht, dirdum, dunt, doosht, dunch, dunt, fornacket, glent, gowf, ramiegeister, skelp, skite, swack, yowff [blow, buffet, knock etc. – for the force of the blow, be guided by the sound of the word].
The following phrases might also be useful:
It wisnae me.
Help! Murther! Polis!
Righteous anger
Alexander Arbuthnot, writing in the fifteenth century, sees a positive side to ire: Feirsness and yre is callit kene curage [Fierceness and ire are called resolute courage]. The Scots are well known for their courage. The Scottish Regiments have a long and glorious history. Scots have fought in defence of freedom all over the world. Righteous Scottish ministers have called down the wrath of God upon Scottish sinners Sunday after Sunday, hopefully of that variety described by Gilbert of the Hay (1456): ire in pitee, merci and grace. Sometimes, a bit of ire can stir up some smeddum (see Sloth).
A million things for Scots to be angry about:
Midgies
You can smack them and whack them; in vain you’ll attack them,
They know every move that you make;
If you manage to kill yin , another half million
Are ready tae come tae the wake!
(Anon).