In the Dictionary of the Scots Language (dsl.ac.uk, DSL) ‘jawp’ is defined originally as ‘A dashing or breaking wave, a breaker.’ And the first example appears in Gavin Douglas’s translation of Virgil’s Aeneid: “On the rolkis hie We hard the jawpys bete” [On the rocks high we heard the jawps beat].

It is therefore easy to understand that by the eighteenth century it meant: “Of water, to dash, splash, ripple to quiver to shake in a container as a liquid…” as shown in the example from J Kelly’s Proverbs “I’ll gar your Harns jape” [I’ll make your brains quiver.]. It then expanded to mean the throwing of water or to strike the surface of water when riding or walking, whether literally or figuratively: “Ye’ll hae to tak unco care that ye dinna jaup yoursel, as ye gae alang the clarty road o’ this sinfu’ warld.” from P H Hunter’s Inwick (1894). 

DSL then goes on to describe “a dash of water, mud; a quantity of liquid suddenly spilt or thrown in the air” or the descriptive “sound of a splash, as from shoes when full of water”.

Twentieth century examples include this from Ayrshire in 1998: “There’s still jaups o pent on the flair”. And this historical note from the Selkirk Weekend Advertiser of September 1986: 

“In the days when the well was in yais, the weemin o the hoose hed tae draw ilk jap o water that was needit for weshin, cleanin or cookin.”

In the twenty first century we have the following example in Scottish Language Dictionaries’ Word Collection from James Robertson: “Sae whit dis God dae, then, aboot the risin sea O sin that jaups the hems o his precious angels’ gouns?” in his The Naesay o Saunt Peter from 2001.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Pauline Cairns Speitel of Scottish Language Dictionaries