25 Scottish words that don’t have an equivalent in English and their meanings - from coorie to stramash

Scotland has a rich linguistic identity that's a direct result of the multitude of different peoples who have arrived, left, invaded, settled, traded, stayed and mixed over the centuries.

Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland, with over 1.5 million people reporting that they could speak it in the 2011 Census. Like its sister language Modern English, Scots descended from Middle English, but it is also heavily influenced by Scandinavian immigration in the 12th and 13th centuries, and even Parisan French due to the 'Auld Alliance' with France.

If you add the borrowing of words from Scottish Gaelic (which also survives to this day, mainly in the northern and western Highlands), then you have a real mixing pot of linguistic terms.

While all of this variety makes life more interesting, it can also cause confusion for any visitors to Scotland who have to quickly learn some of the uniquely Scottish words. So we’ve collected 25 of our favourite examples.

For even more fun stories relating to language, check out our dedicated words and meanings page, where you can find out why we say white rabbit on the first of the month, the meaning of the word woke, and also eight English idioms which have been used in K-pop songs.

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