waesucks and scottish words and wirra and whicker and whisht

I studied these pages today, and I hope to "finish" my run through the dictionary (at least from pages 600-end) tomorrow. Then, for the rest of the week, I will be reviewing my lists before heading out to Cheyenne for the National Senior Spelling Bee on Friday. What struck me today, however, was the really amazing breadth of knowledge one needs in order to live well in the world. I love studying the dictionary rather than, for example, reading the encyclopedia, because by using the former one is transported more quickly to realms of imagination and is reminded more fully of the diversity of human experience and knowledge.

Here are the words from these pages that I either wasn't quite sure how to spell or which I wanted to study more closely. Thanks to the wonders of "Yahoo" or "Google" images, many of the objects are online, which might lead the unwary speller down circuitous routes of discovery before you realize that you haven't made much progress on the dictionary. Well, the words are: wen, wettability, whangee, whaup, whicker, whigmaleerie, whin, whinstone, whittret, wifty, wigan, williwaw, windlestraw, wintle, winze, wirra, wisent, wittol, woad and wodge. I can only pick and choose, so let's get going.

Scottish Words

I think I want to raise my 2006 objection to the presence of so many Scottish words in the Collegiate. Let me be clear on my objection--I have relatives from Scotland, I have been a pastor in a Presbyterian Church that even let bagpipers play during worship, and I once preached a sermon entitled "Bless all the Children of Scotland." So there. But I drive myself crazy trying to learn so many Scottish words that are not in common (or even uncommon) usage today. This list above has six Scottish terms: whaup, whicker, whigmaleerie, whittret, wintle, winze. I could imagine taking a tumble on almost any of them. A bird known as the whaup is, in fact, the curlew, a long-beaked bird which you can find online in pictures. Its Linnean name is Numenius arquata. When looking for pictures, I found one web site which included it with pictures of the other 956 birds of India! I thought what it might be like to spend the rest of my life learning that list..though the thought quickly passed from my mind.

Whicker is a verb meaning "neigh, whinny" (Collegiate), but also to bleat (sheep), to whine (dog), or to snigger or titter (human). English literature doesn't use whicker too often, but when the verb appears it is used as a sort of "catch-all" term to characterize a sound less than "screaming" and more than "whispering." Whenever Thomas Hardy uses a word, I adopt it for my own. From Tess (1891): "The green-spangled fairies that 'whickered' at you as you passed." Tall, swaying grasses can "whicker," as can birds that come hurtling through the air. I think the jury may be out, however, on its continued utility. Maybe it is to natural and animal/human sounds like the collective "group" is to the noun that it modifies. Even though there are several specialized collective nouns (a "gaggle" of geese; a "shrewdness" apes), one could usually get away with "group" or "company." Thus, I guess I have justified whicker's continued utility.

A whigmaleerie is an odd contrivance, a fantastic notion, anything fanciful or whimsical. All of the OED attributions are from Scottish writers whose words are nearly impenetrable to a person who hasn't "learned" that dialect. Robert Burns could say that when someone is a "Brig" as "ault" as he, there would be "Some fewer whigmeleeries in your noodle." What makes matters even worse, however, is that the OED spells the word whigmaleery. This is just the kind of word that will be used in difficult or later rounds of the Bee. I will come prepared.

I guess I overlooked a word: whid, which the Collegiate defines as "to move nimbly and silently." From Scott (1816): "Ye see yon other light that's gaun whiddin' back and forrit." But whid as a verb can also mean "to talk cant; to lie, fib." I can't see much use for the word today, but there it is.

There are no fewer than 20 (and I am not whiddin') spellings of whittret in the OED. The Collegiate simply gives us whittret, and says, "Weasel," though it defines the term in capital letters. The OED simply has: "a weasel; a stoat." I didn't find too many enticing pictures of weasels online, but I found the cutest, furriest little stoat (Mustela erminea) imaginable. After looking at these pictures for a while, you see how you really can study a lot of the world without leaving your desk.

Then there is wintle, which is derived from an Early Flemish word meaning "to roll or swing from side to side." So, the verb means "stagger" or "reel" or, as a second definition in the Collegiate, to "wriggle." The OED also has a meaning of "capsize" or "be upset," probably believing that if you swing from side to side long enough, you probably will turn over. Finally, there is winze, a Scottish word meaning "a curse." There are other meanings of the term, but I will leave it as quickly as I picked it up.

Oh, Irish Words, Too!

Then, I realized that there were a few obscure Irish words, whisht and wirra, that should be mentioned. The first wasn't in my list at the top of the page, but should be noted here. It simply means "Hush!" It sounds like the rush of mighty winds. I think "Hush" suffices, though the "wh" sound is often the first one to escape your lips when you want someone else to shut up. What is wirra? It is an Irish interjection used to express grief or concern. Ok, got it.

I suppose I really shouldn't complain because the National (Student) Spelling Bee, which concluded on June 1, knocked out a number of contestants through foreign words--mostly German words. We might as well have to learn some "English-like" foreign words. But, when I think of the issue further, I think it unfortunate. Oh, here is another Scottish word in these pages (waesucks, p. 1404) used to express pity. Now I know I will never forget the spelling of waesucks, because the use of so many Scottish words in the Collegiate "way sucks."

1925