Hi, Maisie-- You and others are doing a pretty good job of making sure gyte and other such vocabulary does not go the way of the dodo by recording them in your (great) e-mails to this list. All of these emails are duly archived and available to researchers in the foreseeable future. Not to say that the words will necessarily recur in common usage--although as you suggest many should--but at least they are recorded for posterity. Cheers and Happy New Year. Dan MacMeekin Silver Spring, Maryland, USA -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [WIG LIST] Scottish words From: "Maisie Egger" <[1][email protected]> Date: Sat, January 01, 2011 10:58 pm To: "[2][email protected]" <> Scottish word/expression to mull over in the new year - Gyte: I was bemoaning to Olive McDonald, who grew up in Newton Stewart, that there was no celery in the supermarket for my foray into attempted gourmet cooking...I won't "belay" you with the recipe...and told her that there wasn't a stock of celery to be found in the supermarket as apparently the rain had interrupted delivery. First time ever we've experienced this in the Central Coast area of California. Her response, "The whole world has gone gyte!" In Glasgow we used to refer to someone unflatteringly as a stupit-lookin' gyte! No doubt no translation is needed, but just in case! Gyte is a Scottish adjective for crazy or mad. As a noun, it means child: a first year boy at Edinburgh High School or Academy. Also gait, geit (get. offspring). Gyte is such a robust word to describe a situation which is not quite normal. I should add that I don't think the younger generations are using such old Scots words anymore. Even when I was growing up donkey's years ago, using the vernacular, especially the Glesga (Glasgow) patter, was frowned upon. Now I believe efforts are afoot to try to "teach" the "auld tongue" as well as (the) Gaelic. Olive should start a wee compendium of all the words used in the Newton Stewart area when she was growing up before they disappear the way of the dodo bird. Maisie ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [3][email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. mailto:[email protected]