Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1939-1998
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BEHOUCHIE, n. Also behoofie (Cai.), bahootie, bahoochie, bahookie, behooky. A jocular name for the behind, the backside, freq. used to children. Gen. (exc. I.) Sc. [bɪ′huçi]Bwk. 1939 A. Hepple Piper in the Wind 32:
The cat curled up in the warm depression Mr Peregrine's 'bahootie' had left in the arm-chair.Gsw. 1985 Anna Blair Tea at Miss Cranston's 17:
Let a 1970s school-leaver have the last word on gyms.
The one I got when I was in Primary I, did me all my schooldays to Secondary IV. It must've been down to my knees when I was five and well up my bahoochie and straining at the shoulder buttons when I was fifteen. Fif. 1985 Christopher Rush A Twelvemonth and a Day 135:
'Go and meet your maker in hell, you lemon-faced old nanny-goat!'
'Have one for the road!'
'Up your behooky!'
How we hated her.
'We're Spanish sailors!' cried Peem. Sc. 1989 Scotsman 9 Mar 14:
The Lord Provost of Edinburgh fell
down the stairs on her bahookie;
Though she was sober
She couped right over -
And now she's wearing a stookie. Arg. 1993:
Get aff that lazy bahoochie o yours an dae somethin. Sc. 1994 Herald 25 Oct 22:
If "grassing" has supplanted clyping in everyday argot as in a posthumous Taggart episode (October 20) which included an astonishing reference to a Glasgow "inquest" it really is a pain in the bahookie. Abd. 1995 Sheena Blackhall Lament for the Raj 24:
His dowp, behouchie, his dock or hurdies
Are twa roon meens ower grim fur wirdies. Gsw. 1995 Chris Dolan Poor Angels 105:
As far as she was concerned I didn't know my bahookie from my you-know-what. wm.Sc. 1995 Alan Warner Morvern Callar 40:
I sat down on my bahookie, the sand shuddered from all the hoofs galloping, and as the ground shook ... Sc. 1998 Scotsman 2 May :
An auction room is not a kick in the bahookie off a racecourse; though the auctioneers possess perhaps more educated accents they appear quite as raffish as any honest Joe in a check suit in the paddock. Edb. 1998 Gordon Legge Near Neighbours (1999) 133:
To those in office - the council, the police, the local MP - she was a major pain in the bahookie; to the general public she was the sort of person who although you didn't really want to know personally, you were always keen to know about.
[Conflation of behind and houch, Hoch, n.]
