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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PROO, int., v. Also pru (Jam.), p(p)r(r)oo, phrroo, pbroo; prow-; pruie; ptrue, tproo (Jam.); pruite, p(t)ruch, prrutch, proche. Cf. Pree. [pru(tʃ)]

I. int. 1. A word of command to a horse to stop (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 579; s.Sc. 1966). Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. gives the meaning as “a call to a horse to come”.Bwk. 1809 R. Kerr Agric. Bwk. 503:
To their horses, carters employed hap and wind in ordering them to either side, now mostly high-wo and jee; and in calling to stop used the incommunicable sound of prroo, now wo, or woy.Sc. 1821 Scots Mag. (Dec.) 529:
Phrroo — an expression used in Scotland, to stay the career of a horse or cow. . . . It is a sound produced from the throat, aided by a compressed quivering of the lips.Slk. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man xii.:
Soh! tproo! . . . sure the spirit of the evil one is in thee.Cld. 1825 Jam.:
In Clydes[dale] Ptrue is used, when one speaks kindly to a horse, or wishes to soothe him when restive.Lth. 1829 G. Robertson Recollections 163:
The . . . word of command, used in the Lothians to the horse . . . was thus: . . . pprroo, . . . to stop or stand still.

2. A call-word to a cow or calf (Sc. 1825 Jam.; Inv., Fif. 1957). Also in combs. or extended forms proo-leddy (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Lnk. Ayr. 1966); p(t)ruitchie(-leddy) (Rnf. a.1850 Crawfurd MSS. (N.L.S.) P. 71), proochie (Per., Lnk., Ayr., Rxb. 1960), ptrue(m)ai (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 135), proo-yae, prus (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), Sh. 1966), proche-proche (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.), prush-madame, proochie-moo. In 1828 quot. by extension, in dim. form prowie, as a pet-name for a cow.Sc. 1806 R. Jamieson Pop. Ballads II. 362:
Pbroo, pbroo! my bonny cow; (Pbroo, hawkie! ho, hawkie!)Bwk. 1809 R. Kerr Agric. Bwk. 503:
In calling a cow to be milked, hove, hove, often repeated, is the ordinary expression; anciently in the Lothians this was prrutchy, and prrutchy lady.Lth. 1825 Jam.:
Ptruchie or prutch-lady. Spoken to a cow when one invites her to draw near, or wishes to approach her, Loth[ian]. The form of this word in Clydes[dale] is Proochy, and in Dumfr[ies] Ptrua.Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch i.:
They waited on, and better waited on for the prowie's calfing.Ags. 1845 A. Smart Rhymes 189:
Moo, moo, prochy lady! Proo, Hawkie, proo, Hawkie! Lowin' i' the gloamin' hour, Comes my bonnie cow.Bnff. 1847 A. Cumming Tales 49:
[She beheld] her own identical brocked owse. “Pruie, pruie,” cries Sarah.Kcd. 1861 E. B. Ramsay Reminisc. 70:
I have a distinct recollection of hearing, when a child, more than sixty years ago, the dairymaids at Fasque calling to the cow, “Prutchee, mou; prutchee, madame.” This invocation, it seems, is common in Nithsdale, and is simply a corruption of the French, “Approchez moi; approchez, madame.”Lnk. 1889 A. MacLachlan Songs 45:
Prutchie, prutchie, prutchie, kye! Prutchie, prutchie, prutchie! cry!Slg. 1932 W. D. Cocker Poems 89:
Oh, proochy-leddy! Maillie dear, Guid lass, I've drained ye dry!Inv. 1933 I. Macpherson Land of our Fathers xii.:
Her strong voice swept from the river-meadows, through the quiet house, calling, “Proo-yae! Proo-yae!”Nai. 1987 David Thomson Nairn in Darkness and Light (1988) 273-4:
... and I have read but never heard of a beautiful way of calling a cow to you - Prush, Madame, Approche, Madame.

II. v. “To drive cows or horses with the shout prus” (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), Sh. 1966); to call to a cow. Vbl.n. prowing.Cai. 1872 M. McLennan Peasant Life 179:
She . . . entered the byre speaking soft prow-ings to the beasts that were to be in her charge.