Friend & Foe (31 page)
Authors: Shirley McKay
| Scaffery | the act of obtaining benefit by fraud |
| Scathless | unharmed |
| Scolage | school or college fees |
| Scudlar | lowest rank of servant; drudge |
| Scummer | to defecate; hence ‘scummer pan’: a chamber |
| pot | |
| Sea-maw | the common gull |
| Secretar | a trusted scribe or servant; a confidential clerk |
| Selkie | a seal |
| Serkinet | a small jerkin or bodice |
| Shairds | small pieces or fragments |
| Shakebuckler | a nickname for a serving man who is easily antagonised |
| Shotill | a drawer or compartment |
| Sic | such |
| Sin | since, considering that |
| Sink | a sewer, cesspit or drain |
| Skeich | timid, shy |
| Skift | a small light boat |
| Skite /skitter | to defile with excrement |
| Slaffert | a slap, box on the ear |
| Sledger | a sledgehammer |
| Slops | wide, baggy breeches fashionable in the late 16th century |
| Soddins | scraps of boiled meat; food that has been boiled |
| Sops | bread soaked in milk or wine |
| Speir | to make inquiries |
| Speke | speech, way of expression |
| Spinkes | prickles, spines |
| Squire | to escort |
| Steir the pot | stir the pot; stir up; copulate |
| Stew | a stench, a blast of stinking air; a cloud of filth or dust |
| Stomachat | offended, resentful, put out |
| Stoup | a flagon or pitcher |
| Stour (rb) | to spray |
| Stour | a cloud of dust |
| Strack | struck |
| Stummar | to stumble or stammer |
| Subtle | ingenious or clever |
| Succar candies | sweets made from clarified sugar |
| Succats | candied fruits |
| Swak | to dash, hurl violently |
| Swyfing | copulating |
| Tam Lin | protagonist of the ballad by Thomas the Rhymer, who rescued his true love from the fairy queen |
| Tertians | students in their third year |
| Thole | suffer, bear patiently |
| Thrang | crowded |
| Thrawe | a throe or spasm |
| Thrist | (1) a pang or throe, a stabbing sensation, thrust |
| (2) thirst | |
| Thristing | jostling, pushing |
| Ticket of account | a bill of expenses |
| Tippet | a narrow strip of cloth worn across the shoulders; the pennant of an academic hood |
| Traffick | to do business with, negotiate |
| Trance | a passageway; the stone trance: the entrance to St Leonard’s College |
| Trattle | to prattle |
| Trauchled | exhausted |
| Trow-shot | struck by a fairy dart [Trow = troll] |
| Trucour | a traitour |
| Tulchan | Gaelic word for a straw calf, used to coax a cow into giving up its milk. Disparaging name for titular bishops after the Reformation |
| Unco | uncouth; strange, unfamiliar, unknown; extraordinary |
| Vennel | a narrow lane or thoroughfare |
| Visitor | an inspector or examiner; a physician appointed to establish the cause of suspicious or unnatural deaths. Giles Locke was appointed Visitor of St Andrews at the end of Fate & Fortune |
| Wabbit | feeble, weak |
| Wallowed | withered |
| Wam | the stomach |
| Wammil | to feel sick |
| Ward | custody, imprisonment |
| Warkmen | workmen |
| Wattir-kaill | cabbage soup made without meat |
| Wha devil | what devil! What the devil! |
| Wrabil | to wriggle |
| Wrackful | vindictive, harsh or cruel, vengeful, destructive |
| Wynd | a narrow street or alley |
| Yett | a gate |
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