By Betty Kirkpatrick
The last two articles on Scots words have been about heid, Scots for head. This one deals with what is the most used part of the heid as far as many people are concerned, the mooth. Mooth, pronounced as it is spelt, is the Scots equivalent of the English word mouth.
It has the alternative spelling mouth, although this is still pronounced mooth. It also has the alternative forms mou, mow and moo, all pronounced like the sound made by a cow.
As well as referring to the organ of eating and speaking, mooth can be used of a morsel or small amount of food, also known as a mou-bit or mou-bite. Figuratively, it can be used to describe a threshold or entrance, as entry-mooth, the beginning of something, as in the mooth o simmer (summer), or the open top of a shoe.
A mooth can also be a statement, speech or address. If you gie (give) somebody the mooth you start to speak to them or begin to hold a conversation with them.
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Somebody who makes a regular habit or a hobby of this is known as a mooth. This can also be used to describe someone given to bragging as well as to a garrulous person. Mooth and its alternatives have several derivatives. A mooth-bag is a horse’s nose-bag, as is a mooth-poke, and a mooth-cloth is a face cloth. If you are mou-bund you are tongue-tied or completely unable to pronounce a particular word. Those who can be described as muckle-moued have disproportionately large mouths. A mouthfu, moothu or moofu is a mouthful, and if you tak a moufu you enunciate your words in a slow, deliberate or emphatic manner Mooth appears in some colourful phrases. If you speir or ask if someone has a mooth you are inviting them to partake of something to eat or drink. On the other hand, if you forget that someone has a mooth, you do not play the host but leave them unfed and unwatered. If you mak (a) mou, you arrange your mouth in such a way that it indicates disapproval, reluctance, disgust, etc. Someone who maks a puir (poor) mooth or puts on a puir mooth complains in a whining way about poverty, although the phrases often indicate that these tales of poverty are much exaggerated. I am sure we all know fellow Scots who try to put on a southern English accent in the belief that this will make them sound more important, educated, refined, upmarket etc, although it often just makes them sound foolish or affected. In Scots you can say that they get roun (round) the mou wi an English dishclout (dishcloth). That will bring them down to size. There are various references to the mooth or mou in Scots proverbs. Keep yer mooth shut and yer een open advocates saying little but observing a lot. Dinna (do not) open yer mou tae fill other fowks warns us against gossiping. Finally, we return to heid with Gie yer mou mair (more) holidays than yer heid. Sound advice.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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