Heelster gowdie
Say the wird oot lood. Dae ye like the soon? The Essential Scots Dictionary gies the definition as ‘upsidedown or head-over-heels’. This definition comes frae studying quotations frae aw ower, modern and
while-syne . The Dictionary of the Scots Language presents evidence :
Rabbie Burns (1796):
Soon, heels o'er gowdie, in he gangs.
Glesga (1879):
She aff the pavement slips, an' got a heels-owre- gowdie fa'.
Sheena Blackhall (1998):
‘Oh! Oh! Oh!" skirled Kirsty, as she stottit tapsalteerie, heelstergowdie , stot, stot, stot, like a dottled yoyo.
Heelstergowrie is yaised in a slightly different wey in the DSL quote frae Edinburra (2004):
It will aw go heelstergowdie when she gauns on holiday.
Ye micht wint tae think on the wird ‘gowdie’ on its ain. ‘Gowdie’ can be yaised as a pet-name for a light
yellow-coloured cow.
MacTaggart (1824):
Gowdie , the cow, gives a junt of milk.
Gowdie can be a pet-nem for a bairn. The phrase to gae gowdie lane, if yaised of a bairn, maistlie
means tae walk unassistit.
The noun, gowdie-lane can be applied tae a bairn that his juist learnt tae walk, a toddler.
Dae ye ken thae wird? Hiv ye spottit it in onie poems or buiks? Wis it spelt siclike? Let us ken.