Miraculous
During this period when perhaps many Scots are enjoying a dry January, we can reflect on one of the many terms we have for being under the influence of alcohol.
In the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) miraculous is defined as
“a stupefied or incapable condition, especially from drink, very intoxicated”.
It also has a shortened form with various spellings: mirac, maroc and mirack.
The term goes back to the nineteenth century and is exemplified in the following from David Thomson’s Musings Among the Heather (1881):
“The hale lot in a body Had got themsel’s mirac’lous fu’”.
In His Mining Folk (1912) David Rorie describes many states of intoxication:
“A drunk man, if very drunk, is described as mortagious, miracklous, steamin’ wi' drink, or blin’ fou”.
In the late twentieth century, Michael Munro in The Patter (1985) defines it as follows:
“Miaculous. Usually, who knows why, pronounced ‘marockyoolus’, this is a slang term for drunk. Maroc is sometimes heard as a shortened form of this and has nothing to do with tangerines: ‘Ah seen him stotin roon Georgie Square, pur [sic] maroc he wis!’”.
Looking into the shortened form, mirac, revealed the following encounter between a Stornoway sheriff and a Glasgow plumber reported in the Aberdeen Press and Journal of March 1970 under the headline
“Is mirac Gaelic? asks Sheriff”. “I was mirac said a Glasgow plumber when charged with an offence, Stornoway Sheriff Court heard yesterday. And Sheriff Hector Maclean asked: ‘What does he mean by that?’”.
Sadly, the reply has not been recorded.
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.