By Betty Kirkpatrick
Heid, linguistic cousin of English head, has had such an influence on the Scots language that I thought it merited a follow-up article. Those who missed the first article on heid should check it out now.
The word heid appears in a number of phrases. Aff at the heid is the Scots equivalent of English off your head, as is awa (away) in the heid. Both of these indicate that you are mentally unbalanced or not thinking straight and may be behaving decidedly erratically.
A similar state of affairs occurs when yir heid’s fu (full) o broken bottles, not a comfortable thought. An alternative form of this is yir heid’s fu of penny whistles and a modern take on it gives us yir heid’s fu o mince.
Should you tak up yir heid wi something, such as golf, Scrabble or trainspotting, you become interested in it. However if something, often alcohol or an exhilarating experience, taks yir heid, it goes to your head or intoxicates you.
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If you do something that is against the rules or is likely to annoy someone, you may well get yir heid in yir hauns (hands) – in other words receive punishment. Hopefully, you would not find this punishment so severe as to result in your literally wantin yir heid. If that was the case you would have been beheaded. When something is done of your own accord you can say that it has been done at yir ain heid – the equivalent of off your own bat. If such action means that you extend your independence and strike out on your own in some way, you can say in Scots that you get yir heid oot (out). If you do something on the heid o something else you do it immediately after that event. When you are in the heid o something you are busily engaged or deeply involved in it. If your involvement is of an amorous nature, you could be said to be hieds an heels in love, totally besotted. If something happens ower (over) the heid o something, it happens as a consequence of that. For example, a person might miss a meeting ower the heid o the bus being late. When someone is always nippin yir heid they irritate you with their constant nagging. Such a person is called a heid-nipper. If the heid-nippin is too annoying, it is tempting to stick the heid on them or put the heid on them. They both mean to head-butt someone. However, I am never one to advocate violence. It is a better idea simply to screw the heid. This advice means to keep the head and remain calm. It has no erotic overtones.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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