We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By clicking 'continue' or by continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings in your browser at any time.

Continue
Find out more

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BANFF, BAMFF, n. (See first quot.) [bɑmf]Sc. 1825 Jam.2:
Banff. This good town, for what reason I cannot divine, seems to have been viewed rather in a contemptible light. Hence a variety of proverbs have originated. . . . All these suggest the idea of useless travel, or idle labour.Sc. 1840 C. Sinclair Sk. and Stories of Scot., etc. (n.d.) 332:
Bamff is proverbially alluded to by the Scotch as Coventry is in England. If one of the common people be angry at [sic] another, he exclaims in a tone of bitterness: “Go to Bamff!”Lth. 1825 Jam.2:
Gang to Banff, and bind bickers.w.Sc. 1825 Jam.2:
Gae to Banff, and buy bend-leather.

[“Humff hamf quod the laird of Bamf” occurs in Fergusson's Sc. Proverbs (1598), but Bamf here may be Bamff in Perthshire or a mere rhyming word. Other Sc. towns or villages have been singled out for similar notice — e.g. Cupar and Freuchie in Fif. and Borgue in Kcb.]

1720

snd