Scots word of the week

LUMBER, GET A LUMBER

AH, the romance of we Scots. In the Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) “lumber” is defined as “A relationship with someone of the opposite sex; a girlfriend or boyfriend.” It still seems to be in general use to describe a meeting between people looking for some romantic companionship.

Although the earliest example in the DSL comes from a Herald example from November 1992 it clearly shows that the term is much older: “For the tiresomely fashionable, it is not a place [the disco], if you will excuse an old-fashioned phrase, ‘to get a lumber’. Perish the thought, gauche as it would appear, that these bright young things attend in order to form relationships with members of the opposite sex”.

Recent research here at DSL, shows that the term is still alive within current memories: “If you went to high school in the late nineties and early noughties – and if you struggled as badly as I did to get a lumber – then perhaps a chance to exorcise those painful memories is upon us, and not a moment too soon.”

Finally, this example from the

Herald of March 2003 is unequivocal about the term’s origins: “Across the compartment, a very well-dressed woman in a black business suit and lambswool overcoat extracted a mobile phone from her expensive-looking leather briefcase. ‘Lawyer’, Cathy deduced, becoming sadly certain the train was heading for Auld Reekie’s douce suburbs. That was until the woman stopped soberly conversing into her mobey and uttered an urgent query which proved she could only be Glasgow-bound: ‘’So, about last night – d’ye get a lumber?”

PAULINE CAIRNS SPEITEL