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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

JESSIE, n. Sc. usage: a contemptuous expression for an effeminate man. Gen.Sc. Also Jessie Ann (Abd.²¹ c.1920; ne.Sc., Ags. 1959), Jessie Bell (Ags.¹⁸ 1959), Jessie Fisher (Kcd., Ags., Per. 1959). Cf. Katie and Jennie, I. 2.Lnk. 1923 G. Blake Mince Collop Close 20:
He was a big Jessie, but . . . she liked him.Gsw. 1958 C. Hanley Dancing in the Streets 68:
A boy in the class who wore an expensive blazer and had curly hair and a transparent complexion and talked like a jessie, and maybe he was a jessie. Gsw. 1938 Edward Gaitens in Moira Burgess and Hamish Whyte Streets of Stone (1985) 9:
That wasn't like a working man! Did she take him for a jessie or a message-boy? Gsw. 1972 Molly Weir Best Foot Forward (1974) 39:
They would have been regarded as Jessies if they had behaved otherwise, and even mothers and sisters accepted this, ... em.Sc.(b) 1978 John Herdman Three Novellas (1987) 105:
What particularly infuriated me was the smug pleasure which my uncle clearly derived from the situtation, and I determined to find the first possible opportunity to humiliate the old jessie. wm.Sc. 1988 Robin Jenkins Just Duffy 180:
Duffy himself of course didn't mind going messages, and look how tidy the house was. He was a bit of a jessie. No wonder Molly had been too much for him. Edb. 1990 James Allan Ford in Joy Hendry Chapman 59 45:
But boys who went messages with their mothers were called bairns or jessies, and I had to refuse. Edb. 1994 Irvine Welsh Acid House 242:
Dinnae bother ays, jist dinnae fuckin bother ays, son, he dismissively hisses. The disgraced young queen slopes off. Denise turns to me and says, -- Young queens, ten a penny, the fuckin wee jessies. Gsw. 1999 Herald 14 Jul 17:
Gone are the days when you hacked a bit off your maw's clothes rope and practiced crossovers and flips in the privacy of your bedroom so that your pals wouldn't call you a big jessie. Sc. 1999 Herald 27 Sep 13:
I have more than a little sympathy for the big, burly bodybuilding Jessie who took refuge on top of a wardrobe after his erstwhile girlfriend exacted revenge on being jilted, by releasing two mice - I think via the letterbox - into his humble abode.

Comb.: jessypunt, a toady, a sycophantic person.Edb. 1938 Fred Urquhart Time Will Knit (1988) 236:
"He's a right jessypunt," Aunt Kate said. "He's always sookin' in with the new minister ..."Edb. 1994:
Ya wee jessypunt, ye aye manage tae get sweeties oot yer auntie.