Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

LUGGIE, adj., n. Also luggy; loogie; loggie; lowgie. [′lʌgi; Mry. ′lugi; Fif. ′lʌugi]

I. adj. 1. With characteristic ears, because of length, shape, colour or the like, as a prop. name in 1734 quot.; also having only one ear (Fif. 1958; Mry. 1961, loogie).Ork. 1734 P. Ork. A.S. 65:
One black horse called Luggie, Eight pound eighteen shilling.

2. Having ear-like flaps or projections, luggit (see Lug, v., 1. and Combs.). Hence luggie-kep, -spade (Ork. 1961).Abd. 1903 J. Milne Myths 14:
A blow from a "luggie cog," that came from the "rances" of the dresser table.Bnff. 1960 Banffshire Jnl. (26 Jan.):
We experienced bitterly cold winds as a rule and "luggie" bonnets were almost a necessity.

II. n. 1. A small wooden dish or vessel with one or two handles formed from the projection upwards of one or two of the staves (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Per., Fif., Lth., Ayr. 1915–26 Wilson, luggie, lowgie; Cai., Bnff., Kcd., em.Sc.(a), Lth., Rxb. 1961), freq. one used for serving milk with porridge. Hence luggie-fu, the contents of a luggie.Sc. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Shep. iii. ii.:
The Green-Horn Spoons, Beech-Luggies mingle On Skelfs foregainst the Door.Sc. 1749 Caled. Mercury (14 Sept.):
A new shearing Hook and a small Wooden Dish (a Luggie) lying by them.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 211:
Your taunts, that seenil hae been seen Awa frae luggie, quegh, or truncher treein.Ayr. 1787 Burns To a Haggis viii.:
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware, That jaups in luggies.Kcb. 1814 W. Nicholson Poems 116:
Here glancin' trenchers in a raw And luggies laid in order.Fif. 1864 W. D. Latto T. Bodkin iv.:
Mrs Williamson ran to the door for a luggie-fu' o' water.Abd. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb iv.:
He . . . took up his horn spoon and "suppit" his porridge from a dainty wooden "caup", the milk that seasoned it being contained in a smaller "timmer luggie."Ork. 1880 Dennison Sketch-Bk. 105:
His spitefu hert rins ower wi ilty Like frothe oot ower a barman' luggie.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 66:
Leddy Susannah . . . syned her face every morning in a luggiefu' of sow's milk.Uls. 1908 A. M'Ilroy Burnside i.:
Rows of porridge luggies were to be seen cooling on the window-sills.Ags. 1920 D. H. Edwards Muirside 252:
A twenty pence luggie for fifteenpence an' a porritch-stick into the bargain?

2. A similar vessel of a larger size, used esp. as a milking-pail (Dmf. 1925 Trans. Dmf. & Gall. Antiq. Soc. 32; Ags., Fif., Lth., wm.Sc., Gall. 1961; Arg. 1990s), or for slops, as in dirty luggie, see Dirty, 2. (4). Hence luggieful, a pailful.Ayr. 1866 Trans. Highl. Soc. 76:
Some auld crummies . . . will beat them out and out in giving a regular and lengthy yield of big luggiefuls.Kcb. 1895 Crockett Bog Myrtle xiv.:
Kit Kennedy took a milking-pail, which he would have called a luggie.Rxb. 1910 Trans. Hawick Arch. Soc. 8:
Milkers were in attendance each provided with creepie or crackie-stool, and wooden luggie. wm.Sc. 1989 Anna Blair The Goose Girl of Eriska 95:
In the byre she looked at them miserably as she set down her creepie-stool and luggie ... with the swollen fingers, thick as the teats of the cow she began to milk.

3. From Lug, n., 1.: a game in which one of the players is led round a circle of the others by the ear, repeating a rhyme, and stops before another player who has to repeat the rhyme correctly, or if he makes a mistake, has then to be led round in turn (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.; Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.); the player who is led round (Edm.).

4. The horned or long-eared owl, Asio otus, so called from the projecting tufts of feathers on its head (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 324; Dmf. 1910 H. S. Gladstone Birds Dmf. 174).

5. From Lug, n., 3. (2): a peat-spade (Ork. 1929 Marw., Ork. 1961).

6. A lodge or hut in a garden or park (n.Sc. 1825 Jam.); any similar small cottage with one chimney-stack at the side and hence fancifully resembling 1. (Per., Edb. 1961). Cf. Knog, n., 2.

7. From I. 1. used attrib.: a nickname for a person with prominent ears (w.Lth. 1961).