- rat. Sermons in Scottish kirks have a certain reputation for being long and tedious and are admirably described by the Scots word dreich. The minister referred to in Robert Wodrow's Analecta (1702) might not have been best pleased when In the midle of the sermon, a ratton came and sat doun on his Bible, but no doubt all the small boys in the congregation were highly delighted. Rotton appears in many street names, including the alliterative Rotten Row, in recognition of the number of rodent residents.