There is some difficulty surrounding this word and its many variants, such as awald, awald, avalt and avell. There are two completely different groups of senses and we may in fact be looking at two different words, but the etymology is very uncertain. One sense, attested since the early sixteenth century, is explained by John C.Morton in A Cyclopedia of Agriculture (1869): "An avald crop is the second white crop in succession on the same land". Related to this is yavil broth, or second-day soup, and a widower may be referred to by the hopeful lady of a certain age as a yavil batchelor. The Scots Magazine (September 1924) offers another agricultural usage: "‘Yaval ferro’ means twice without a calf". Furthermore, it can mean ‘to take a second crop’ and an Aberdeenshire speaker (1969) described thisconversation: "Elderly farmer with a five year old daughter to a teacher who mistook her for his grand-daughter: ‘Na, she’s my ain dother. I’ve yavalt (taken a second crop)". The very different sense is ‘flat on one’s back’, like a cowped sheep, and it can be use as a verb meaning ‘to fall in this manner’. Hogg, that font of ovine lore, in his Shepherd’s guide (1807) give us: "Awalding. This is the most common and dangerous of accidents". "Ding-me-yaval" may be used as an expression of surprise. A bloody verb variant (without the ‘v’) comes from John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language(1825): "To yoll with an axe" and a storm is described in the Huntly Express (1 Feb 1963): "Poles, an’ wires, an’ even kiosks, war yavell’t wi’ the blast". "Ding-me-yaval" might be an appropriate response to this claim in R. Trotter’s Galloway Gossip (1901): "A min’ yin o’them...could maist ’a taen a Kyloe bill by the horns, an laid it aval".

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.

This week's Word is spoken by Dr Dauvit Horsbroch.