By Betty Kirkpatrick
I was in a bus the other day when a toddler was attempting to get the rest of the passengers to join in her game. She was covering her eyes with her scarf, then removing it and shouting out "keek".
Most of the passengers took part with enthusiasm, even those who obviously had no idea what keek means. Still, they got the essential message of the game, which in Scotland is called keek, keekboo or keekaboo and in England peekaboo.
The game is derived from the Scots verb keek, which means to take a quick look at something. The quick look often involves some degree of secrecy, inquisitiveness, or surreptitiousness. A nosey neighbour might keek through a chink in the curtains to see what their neighbour is up to. A would-be cheat might try and keek at someone else’s answers during a school test.
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Keek can also be a noun, with meanings corresponding to that of the verb. Thus, before venturing into a restaurant, you might try and get a quick keek at the menu so that you can make sure that there is something on it that you will like – and be able to afford. Fortunately, many restaurants now take the surreptitiousness out of keeking by displaying the menu in the window. If you decide to keek in on someone you pay them a short visit, often unannounced. This visit is known, not surprisingly, as a keek. Remember that not everyone is enthused by such unscheduled keeks. Keek, which is pronounced as it is spelt, appeared in Scots in the late 15th century. It is derived from Middle English kiken or keken and has connections with Dutch kijken, to peep or look. Keek has given rise to various compounds or phrases. Keekin-glass is a looking-glass or mirror, reminding us of those vain people who cannot pass anything shiny without having a quick keek to check on their reflection. A keek-hole is a peep-hole, a chink in something through which an inquisitive person can keek in order to satisfy their curiosity. Rather poetically, keek o’ day is dawn or sunrise and keek o’ noon is midday. A keek-the-vennel is a nickname given to a school attendance officer who was out to identify truants and bring retribution to them. A vennel is a lane or an alley. Presumably the attendance officer was always taking quick looks up such alleys with a view to glimpsing those who should have been safely behind their school desks. In similar vein, a keek-roon-corners is a spy, roon meaning round, The best-known derivative of keek nowadays is keeker. This originally referred to a person who keeks and was particularly used of a peeping Tom. It then went on to mean the eye, the organ that is keeked through. Keeker is also used to refer to a microscope, a far-keeker being a telescope. However, these are violent times and the most appropriate meaning of keeker for such times is black eye, sometimes known as a blue keeker. Allegedly, such keekers are most commonly caused by walking into doors.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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