Scabby-heided
A term to make your skin crawl! The Dictionaries of the Scots Language defines scabby-heided as
“infested with head lice”.
[Illustration by Bob Dewar]
Matthew Fitt’s 1996 poetry collection Pure Radge contains a particularly memorable early example:
“scabbie-heidit, muckle-boukit [of large build], aye hingin, hootchin wi clart”.
In November 2000, the Daily Record demonstrated how the phrase could be used to describe indiscriminate hunger:
“Hungry? I could eat a scabby-heided wean with toenail clippings on the side”.
To each his own.
These examples beg the question, is there only late twentieth century evidence for the term? Apparently not! The Port Glasgow Express of November 1895 has the following exchange from a trial over a row between sisters:
“Stanton was the first witness, and he said he heard Mrs Sweenie calling her sister a scabbie headed —.”
Unfortunately, the exact nature of this insult will be forever unknown, thanks to the editor’s cautious redaction.
Back to the twenty-first century, in August 2013 a writer in the Daily Record reflected on their childhood television habits:
“In my lifetime, my relationship with the telly has changed drastically. Going from being wee and feeling utterly deprived of one, to now eking out time to catch up with only what I’ve already (I still say this) ‘taped’! For years, the only person in our street with a telly was Mrs Lyons, the hairdresser. Saturdays saw her house invaded by scabby-headed weans who were not only there to watch Doctor Who but also to get the Vosene and clipper treatment”.
Ah, nostalgia.
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
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