Famously described by Hugh Macdiarmid as “hauf like a bird and hauf like a bogle”, bubbly-jocks have graced the Scottish dinner-table since the sixteenth century. In the Calendar of the State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots (1571) we find: “Wyld foules of dyvers sortis sic as pertrikis, phasenes, turky cockis”, although here the reference may be to capercailzies, sometimes known as wild turkeys. The Scots name of bubbly-jock, or bubbly-cock, is first recorded in the Collected Writings of Dougal Graham who died in 1779: “His nose was like a bublie-cocks neb”. According to E. B. Ramsay’s Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character (1858), it became embedded in the vocabulary of the nobility: “Her Grace turned to him and said, ‘Rax me a spaul (shoulderblade) o’ that bubbly jock’”. Figuratively, ‘to be sair hauden doon by the bubbly-jock’ is to be oppressed with too much to do, a condition we can relate to in the run-up to Christmas. Imagine then the chore of plucking, stuffing and cooking the bird described in the Aberdeen Evening Express (2002): “The biggest Christmas bird in Scotland is set to be sold off in an exciting Christmas auction. Weighing in at a colossal 67 pounds, the Inverurie-bred turkey is set to feed more than 100 people”. Such a feast gives added force to this invitation from John Galt’s The Entail (1823): “I request and hope ye’ll bide wi’ us, and help to carve the bubbly-jock, whilk is a beast ... that requir’t the skill o’ a doctor, the strength o’ a butcher”. There was always a range of size to suit all appetites. The Scottish Historical Review refers to a supper consumed in 1671: “a paire of twrkies 8s”. By contrast, Edinburgh Burgh Records for 1688 record: “Tame foul ... the best turkie cock to be sold for £2 2s”.

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