By Betty Kirkpatrick
A reader has written in about the word peerie. The sense mentioned relates to dimensions and is rightly defined as small. This meaning of peerie, although formerly more widespread, is now most common in Orkney and Shetland. Like many words, its origin is doubtful, although it is thought to have connections with Norwegian dialect piren, meaning thin, feeble, sickly or niggardly and Swedish dialect pirug, meaning slender or little.
This sense of peerie has given rise to a number of interesting phrases. You might possibly think that peerie folk are children. This is quite logical, children being small people, but it is not correct. Peerie folk are even smaller than children. They are fairies.
The expression peerie breeks sounds as though it might be used to describe trousers or knickers that are too tight – and literally, this would be the case. Figuratively, however, someone referred to as peerie breeks is either a small child or, more insultingly, a person who is vertically challenged and has exceptionally short legs.
Scots has another word peerie with a quite different meaning. Its use was much more widespread throughout the country than the peerie described above. Primarily, it means a child’s spinning top. Other meanings include a fir cone and a small stone marble. The spinning top in question was spun into motion by a string known as a peerie cord or peerie string.
This peerie has also given us to some interesting phrases. The one that a good few of you are likely to have come across is peerie heels. These are high, sharply-pointed heels which appear on women’s fashionable shoes. In more modern parlance, they are known as stiletto heels – or, when they reach new heights of discomfort, killer heels. They are a podiatrist’s dream.
To sleep like a peerie is the direct equivalent of English to sleep like a top. Both expressions mean to sleep exceptionally soundly, which may seem rather odd. Since a peerie or top goes round and round all the time you might think that to sleep like a top meant to sleep fitfully, constantly tossing and turning. However, apparently in top terminology sleep means to spin steadily and smoothly without wobbling. You learn something new every day!
The expression peerie-heedit does not mean that you have a head shaped like a top. It means that your head feels as though it is spinning round and round all the time like a top, indicating a state of deep confusion. This is often caused by having too many things to do and too little time to do them in, the modern disease in fact.
As to origin, peerie might well be derived from the Scots word peer, the equivalent of the English fruit, pear. After all, you could describe tops as being pear-shaped in that they have a rounded bottom part and a narrower top part.
Of course, today it is not usually tops that are described as pear-shaped. The expression is mostly reserved for things that go horribly wrong. I wonder if you would feel better any about such a disastrous situation if you called it peerie-shaped. Probably not.
Betty Kirkpatrick is the former editor of several classic reference books, including Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus. She is also the author of several smaller language reference books, including The Usual Suspects and Other Clichés published by Bloomsbury, and a series of Scots titles, including Scottish Words and Phrases, Scottish Quotations, and Great Scots, published by Crombie Jardine.
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