Taps aff in the dictionary? What a clusterbourach!
WITH temperatures expected to rise over the coming days, it may at last be time get the taps aff.
The perhaps already familiar expression is among nine newcomers added to the Scots language dictionary.
It is joined by wabsteid, the Scots form for website, and clusterbourach, a disaster or a fiasco, which was first recorded in 2018.
Jaked, a Scots word for inebriated, roaster – an idiot – and numptitude, another term for idiocy, are also being added.
To be eligible for listing, the words must have appeared in at least three separate written sources, which can include social media posts. Also new to the dictionary are scary biscuits, an expression of mock fear, and taps aff – a popular phrase when the sun comes out.
Wee shame, a topic or object of pity, and tonto, a wild or crazy state, are now also recognised in the listing.
The dictionary brings together Modern Scots (after 1700) in The Scottish National Dictionary and Older Scots (before 1700) in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue.
Dr Rhona Alcorn, chief executive of Scottish Language Dictionaries, said that there was often a delay between words coming into use and appearing in dictionaries.
She said: ‘There is a considerable lag between the formation of a word and its discovery by dictionary makers.
‘New words tend to come about in speech and it can take an awful long time for a word to appear frequently in speech and then be written down enough for it to come before a dictionary maker.’
She added that contenders for the dictionary were held in a ‘wordbank’, along with written references. Scots is spoken by 1.5million people in Scotland.