Rhyming slang is sometimes thought to be strictly the domain of the Cockney but it has been utilized as a device by Scots speakers too. 

Scooby Doo, the cartoon character created for the Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1969, will make an appearance in the new edition of the Concise Scots Dictionary because, as far as we can ascertain, in the early 1990s his name was used as the rhyming slang for ‘clue’. However, I cannot find any examples of his name in full it seems always to be shortened to ‘Scooby’ as in ‘I haven’t got a scooby’. The earliest example that we have in our Word Collection comes from The Herald of 14 May 1993: “Your lawyer telling youse that he husnae a scooby and youse can jist take a wee tirravie [a fit of rage or bad temper] tae yersel.” (which, incidentally, also appears in the revised Oxford English Dictionary from 2006).

The fact that the term is used in print in a national newspaper illustrates that it was in common enough use to be understood by the general public but as with many new Scots words finding evidence in print is very difficult. 

Many of the current examples seem to be concerned with our national obsession with football as this example from Grant Stott writing in Edinburgh’s Evening News of 24 January 2011: “If I had a pound for every time someone has asked me or texted me the question, “big man, what's happening with yer team?” I’d have?.?.?. well, a few quid now.And the answer is always the same. I haven’t got a Scooby. 

There, as with much of research, the hunt is still on for earlier examples of this phrase.

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