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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Quotation dates: 1721, 1818-1822, 1929-1933

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BUCKIE, Bucky, n.5 "A perverse or refractory person is thus denominated with an epithet conjoined; as, a thrawn buckie, and sometimes, in still harsher language, a Deil's buckie" (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Gen.Sc., but obsol. in Cai. (Cai.7 1936).Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems 213:
Gin ony sour-mou'd girning Bucky Ca' me conceity keckling Chucky . . . I'll answer sine, — Gae kiss ye'r Lucky.
Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xviii.:
If there isna our auld ne'er-do-weel deevil's buckie o' a mither.
Bch. 1929 (per Abd.1):
A thrawn buckie that wid neyther lead nor ca'.
Ags. 1933 W. Muir Mrs Ritchie xiv.:
Bet Bowman, as was to be expected of such a devil's buckie, was an unquiet sleeper.
Ayr. 1822 Galt Sir A. Wylie lxi.:
Was ever twa sic deevil's buckies cleckit, to fash simple folk, like you and me, as this mighty madam and her flea-luggit lord?

[Origin uncertain. May be a variant of Bockie, a hobgoblin (see first quot. s.v.), or from obs. buck = he-goat, or from Buckie, n.1, because of its twisted shell.]

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