My brother sent me this link illustrating and defining the Scots word sook (SND), given as “sycophant, crawler, toady, to fawn and flatter” with the sample sentence “Ah’ve heard o sookin in wi the boss Smithers but this is takin it ower far. Yir fired!” I enjoyed the word, of course, but I was thrilled that it was from a most enjoyable site I hadn’t been familiar with, Stooryduster:
The Scottish Language is full of attitude, great on the ear, emotive, and the words are not too far from English which makes them globally accessible. I hear and speak Scots every day. Perfect for me to illustrate and translate.
It seems to have been quiescent for over a year — the latest entry is Curl-doddy, from April 22, 2025 (defined as “The devil’s bit scabious, the seed-bearing stem of the ribwort plantain, clover, both red and white and other such round headed flowers”: “Ye canni ca it curl-doddie, that’s for the deil’s bit scabious frae the Scabiosa family, an dinni snigger”) — but the archives go back to the year 2000, so there’s plenty to investigate. Thanks, Eric!
Zeendi, Teendi, Taedheri, Mundheri, Baombe, Hecturi, Zecturi, Aover, Daover, Dek
There was another thread where these “shepherd’s” 1-10 were given in various languages.
I take it you found your way to this post?
Apparently if you say it with a Scots-enough accent “sook” can mean not only “suck-up” (the gloss here) but also “sucker,” with context hopefully disambiguating.
@hat
Also aover here
https://stooryduster.co.uk/scottish-words-glossary/index.htm
alagrugous ɑlɛ′gru:gs sour, woebegone – based on the notorious bitter poker playing pirate captain Alagrugous Wanworth Snauchle – a character invented by me only a few days ago (2020).
I took that to mean he had inserted a word he had invented and was a bit annoyed, but upon investigation it turns out it’s a real word, he just invented the pirate. (He also left a vowel out of the pronunciation — DSL has ɑlɛ′gru:gɪ̢s.)
With a Russian-/Mandarin-style retroflex?
@dm
I am not sure where they got that pronunciation. Here is Gallus:
https://forvo.com/word/gallus/#sco
Here is Billy Connolly “famous” (~0.07)
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/0VreYwq_LGI