Plank
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) gives a selection of definitions for plank. The one we’re focusing on here is:
“to put in a secret place. Hide, secrete, stow away for later use.”
As children, did you spend time in December searching for where the presents had been planked? Perhaps the following from Alex G Murdoch’s Scotch Readings (1886) refers to present-hiding:
“Hide it below the bed, or ‘plank’ it on the highest shelf in the house”.
The next citation in DSL comes from nearly 100 years later. In Agnes Owens’ Gentlemen of the West (1984) this appears:
“‘Ach, I’m away,’ said Baldy. ‘I think I’ve got a bottle planked somewhere in the Drive’”.
Another (from Anna Blair’s Scottish Tales, 1987) describes a shepherd who is about to leave a place scrabbling
“frantically in the sand to find the planked treasure that would change his life.”
Traveller and author, Betsy Whyte, used the term as a command to her dog in her autobiographical Red Rowans and Wild Honey (1990):
“… I said, ‘Plank, Ricky! He’s coming again.’ This time, however, the policeman just cycled past us, giving a little wave of his hand”.
Finally, the following example appeared in the Weekly News of March 2020:
“The Queen doesn’t plank the top plonk for herself, though. She’s a famously generous host and, as royal sommelier Pippa Penny puts it, likes to ‘pull out the good stuff for the state occasions and royal banquets’”.
An affectionate picture of the late Queen not hiding her best wines.
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.