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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GADGIE, n. Also gadgee, -jé, gaugie; also in reduced form gadge (Cai., Abd., Ayr., Rxb. 2000s). A man, fellow (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Yetholm c.1930 per Dmb.², 1950 Scots Mag. (Feb.) 336, gadgee), sometimes used with depreciatory force (Bwk. 1900 E.D.D., gadjé). Also in Nhb. dial. Orig. a name given by a gipsy to a non-Romany. Now common in children's usage in Edb. [′gɑdʒi]Gall. 1906 A. McCormick Tinkler-Gypsies App. xvii.:
Ogle (listen [to]) the gadgie mangan (house-dweller talking). [McCormick gives the form gaugie for Per. and Arg.]Bwk., Kelso, Yetholm 1916 T.S.D.C. II.:
Gadgie. Name applied to males. . . “Here, I say, gadgie (if name unknown).”. . . “A young, an old, a queer gadgie.” To the workmen, the foreman is the gadgie.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.:
Ay, ee're a shan gadgee, no keepin yer tryst last night.Sc. 1937 J. Worby The Other Half xxi.:
My dark companion tried her best to persuade me to take a partnership with her . . . as she said she wanted a gadgie.Rs. 1985:
One [lecturer] from Dingwall asked if gadgie appeared in the dictionary. He knew it in Dingwall as a noun for 'man' with no connotation of shape or size and thought it to be very localized in its use. He believes that the Scots Magazine once attributed it to Romany. Abd. 1990 Stanley Robertson Fish-Hooses 1992 (p17) :
The gaffer wis anither big rough-deeking gadgie and I thought tae masel that this wis gan tae be anither guffie-but he wis a fine, cheerful man. Per. 1990 Betsy Whyte Red Rowans and Wild Honey (1991) 72:
On this Nellie, Katie and Annie dived on her, holding her down in the water. Her fierce struggling and shouting of 'Gadgie! Shaness! Shaness!' were ignored, until one of them glanced up and sure enough an elderly gamekeeper stood on the bank, his dog at his feet. Edb. 1993 Irvine Welsh in A. L. Kennedy and Hamish Whyte New Writing Scotland 11: The Ghost of Liberace 148:
See that big skinny gadge wi
the tarten skerf? Big Adam's
Aypil hinging ower the toap ay
it? Dundee 1994 Matthew Fitt in James Robertson A Tongue in Yer Heid 179:
The lassie skelpt him, swack agross the gub.
"Is he batherin you?" Twa mukkil gadgies wur camin owre, swellin oot thair chists an gein the young lad the evill.