Monday, June 13, 2005

Outwith

The other day I had to translate the following phrase from French to English: "en dehors de ces paramètres..." The solution that immediately sprang to mind was "outwith these parameters" which is probably not the first possibility that springs to your mind unless you're from my part of the world, as I quickly discovered when Word did its squiggly red underlining thing. After a quick google it transpired that "outwith" is a typically Scottish term. I can't imagine how the rest of you manage without such a useful word. And there are so many more: where would my vocabulary be without wee and pinkie and burn and brae ... Over at Blethers, Stuart Mudie has not only given his blog a Scottish title but his derrière is still Scottish too. You can take the laddie out of Scotland but you can't purge him of all those wonderful scotticisms.

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5 comments:

Ms Mac said...

I would never have guessed that!

How do the rest of the world function without outwith?

Sarah Mackenzie said...

I'm guessing that you are a fellow Scot. You left a coment on my blog and included the word "jotter". I haven't heard anybody, other than a Scot, say that in years.
I could live without outwith.

Sarah (letters home)

Ms Mac said...

"Jotter" Nobody has a clue what I say when I tell the boys to get their "jotters".

I may have to come up with a funny clever post about Scottish words. I may even steal your title again.

Don't hold your breath though....

Lesley said...

I had no idea that jotter was a Scottish word. I'm glad to see that the Scottish population of the Aquitaine region is going to be boosted Sarah!
Look forward to another funny, clever post ms mac and steal away.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to see if I can fit jotter into a post now as well, without it sounding too contrivied.

Confinement

Being confined indoors most of the day, just the four of us, is reminding me of the days when my children were wee and most of our weekends ...