The derivation of this word is obscure; the earliest recorded meaning in the Dictionary of the Scots Language  http://www.dsl.ac.uk is: “to perform as an acrobat” and dates from 1503. Later, it widens its meaning to include “To mount, ascend to a height by climbing; to climb, clamber…” The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that it may originally derive from “older Flemish or Low German speler (German spieler) player, actor”.

During this time of party invitations speel came to my mind as a candidate for Word of the Week because of a reply in verse given by Robert Burns, writing in 1786, to just such an invitation: 

“Sir, 

Yours this moment I unseal, 

And faith I’m gay and hearty! 

To tell the truth and shame the deil, 

I am as fou as Bartie:

But Foorsday, sir, my promise leal, 

Expect me o’ your partie, 

If on a beastie I can speel,  

Or hurl in a cartie. 

Yours, Robert Burns. Mauchlin, Monday night, 10 o’clock.” 

The verse creates a clear mental picture of a slightly tipsy Burns trying to clamber onto his horse. 

Most other examples in the DSL are centred round scaling less mobile objects than horses. In 1950 O Douglas in Farewell to Priorsford wrote: “Naebody had ever tried to spiel thae rocks.” Figurative uses are well documented too. The following is from R W Thom Jock o Knowe: “Tam Gripper, then nae laird atweel, Maun [must] up the social ladder speel.” (Dumfries, 1877).

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