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.
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.]
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"Behouchie n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 23 Nov 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/snd00087935>