Scots word of the week

50 years ago

Large quantities of dangerous munitions yesterday continued to be washed up on beaches in the southwest of Scotland. The origin of the munitions will not be known until explosives experts have analysed the materials. However, Labour MP George Foulkes yesterday demanded that British Gas contractors ceased underwater operations on a pipeline between Scotland and Northern Ireland until the mystery was solved. Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth last night expressed his concerns to the Defence Secretary.

BAWBEE

BAWBEES have been with us a very long time. The Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) informs us of the likely source of the name: “apparently a shortening of Sillebawbe, the territorial designation of Alexander Orrok, appointed master of the mint in 1538”. The coin was originally silver and had the value of “three, and subsequently of six pennies Scots”.

By 1553 the Lanark Burgh Records had the following extract: “He wantit na mair mony nor tua crounis of weycht and tua bawbeis.” In the 18th century, the value changed to become a halfpenny and, in 1703, the Account Book of Sir John Foulis gives the following example: “For a chopin eall [ale] and a babie [bawbee] loafe ...”.

Later, the term came to mean money in general with an early example from Glasgow in A G Murdoch’s 1879 Rhymes and Lyrics: “My second man … Had twa-three bawbees in the bank”. By the late 20th century this sense was still current, as in the following from the Herald of May 1989 relating to the world of football: “If you will invest only a few of Nike’s considerable bawbees (the Scottish equivalent of ecus) in the Blue Brazil [Cowdenbeath FC] your symbolic gesture for youth development will provide a lead for the authorities, and will put a samba-smile on the face of Scottish football”. We Scots are still viewed as canny, as this observation on Ian Rankin from the Sunday Herald of May 2004 observes: “Despite the millionpound-plus advances he now commands, Rankin keeps a gimlet eye on his bawbees.” Finally, the DSL tells us, if ye ken the richt side of a bawbee you are “sharp and shrewd in money matters”. PAULINE CAIRNS SPEITEL