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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

FOGGIE, adj., n.¹ Also foggy, fogie, fuggie; fowgie (Cai.). [Sc. ′fɔgi, m.Sc. ′fʌgɪ, Cai. ′fʌugi]

I. adj. Mossy, covered with moss or lichen. Gen.Sc. Hence of a turnip, soft and spongy (ne.Sc. 1952).Sc. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Shep. iv. ii.:
Nae mair around the Foggy-know I'll creep.Sc. 1743 R. Maxwell Select Trans. 18:
It may be laid down with Grass-seeds; so to ly, unless it turn sour or foggy.Fif. 1806 A. Douglas Poems 87:
Now I'll awa, an careless rove Owre yonder foggy mountain.Rnf. 1806 R. Tannahill Poems (1876) 179:
In wilyart glens he lik'd tae stray, By fuggie rocks, or castle gray.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. Introd. ix.:
A “rouch curr tyke,” seated in a comfortable manner on some foggy tomack.Rxb. 1847 J. Halliday Rustic Bard 261:
We've speel'd upon its foggie stem, an' dern'd amang its green.Edb. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick 231:
It's soor land and gey foggy, some bits o't, but no' that bad for grazin, either.Ayr. 1913 J. Service Memorables 17:
The murmur of the Lugton owre the fuggy stanes.Bnff. 1918 J. Mitchell Bydand 21:
Like a foggy neep My dorty tongue lay douf an' dum'.

Hence in combs.: 1. foggie-bee, the wild or carder bee, Bombus muscorum (Sc. 1825 Jam.; Mry., Abd., Ags., Per., Peb., wm. and s.Sc. 1952); 2. foggie bread, thick, soft, crumbly oatcakes (Abd.¹⁵ 1952); 3. foggie-bummer, = 1. (Bnff.¹⁶, Abd.¹⁵ 1952). Also foggie-bummie (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.); 4. foggie diddler, a carpet slipper (Abd.²⁷ 1952), from its soft, fluffy appearance; 5. foggy peat, a rough, soft, spongy peat (Cai., ne.Sc., Uls. 1952); 6. foggie-toddler, = 1. (Ags. 1892 Brechin Advertiser (13 Sept.); ne.Sc., Ags., Fif. 1952; Bnff. 2000s). Also trans., see 1894 quot.; †7. foggy-wamed, fat-bellied, corpulent. Cf. Eng. dial. foggy, fat, and etym. note to Fog.1. Sc. 1853 N. & Q. (1st Ser.) VIII. 64:
A well known species of the humble bee which has its nest in a mossy bank and is itself clothed with a moss-like covering: its name among the Scotch peasantry is the fogie-bee.Rxb. 1870 J. Thomson Doric Lays 84:
We harried the byke o' the wild foggy bee.Fif. 1882 J. Simson Inverkeithing 34:
I had noticed a foggie-bee about to alight.Abd. 1920 C. Murray Country Places 3:
He hovered to herrie a foggie bees' byke.2. Bch. 1929 W. Littlejohn Cottar Stories 4:
Annie had invited a few of her elder scholars on a Hallowe'en, and they were busy baking girdle bannocks, foggie bread and such like dainties.3. Dmb. 1846 W. Cross Disruption xl.:
We're nane o' your moorland foggy bummers wi' ither bykes in the grund.5. Ork. 1907 Old-Lore Misc. I. iv. 133:
They burned rough kinds known by various names such as, . . . spade or foggy peats.6. Ags. 1894 J. Paul Up Glenesk 38:
The men from Forfar, who were free-stone masons, appear to have been looked on as in the nature of intruders in the Glen. They were locally known as 'Foggy-Toddlers', the soubriquet arising from the circumstance that their trousers bore patches of the hue contracted by working among free-stone.Ags. 1898 A. H. Rea Divot Dyke 113:
Like foggie-toddlers frae their byke Each drucken, tousey, lumper tyke At sharp eleven stoitered forth.Fif. 1909 J. Colville Lowland Sc. 149:
The foggie, also known as the foggie-toddler, is the small yellow bee that seems to crawl, baby fashion, over the soft, yellow fog or moss.Abd. 1952 L. Starr To Please myself Again 81:
Those chestnut-and-amber bees, furry and fat, we children on Deeside used to call “foggy toddlers.” They had their nests deep in the river banks, entered by a tiny tunnel smaller than a mousehole.Per. 1998:
Ye're no feared o a foggie-toddler, Bab.7. Abd. 1817 Garland of Bonaccord (1886) 8:
Fan G — 'n's wife grew foggy-wamed Fan she lay in, an' a' that.

II. n. 1. The wild or moss bee (Per., Fif., Lth., Ayr. 1915–26 Wilson; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Lnk.¹³ 1927; Rs., ne.Sc., Fif. 1952; s.Sc. 1990s). See combs. above.Sc. 1819 Blackwood's Mag. (Sept.) 677:
There was in the tent a nest of humble bees of that brown, irritable sort called “foggies.”Lnk. a.1854 W. Watson Poems (1877) 194:
The broomy knowe an' auld fauld dyke, . . . Whar he fand out the foggie's byke.Bwk. 1870 Hist. Bwk. Nat. Club VI. 128:
There still remain a very few of a brown bee (the foggy) which makes its nest on the surface somewhat like the nest of a mouse.Fif. 1946 J. C. Forgan Maistly 'Muchty 10:
I'd smeek foggies' bikes in the holes o' the dykes, Gin I were a laddie again.

2. A greyish, soft, floury bun, a kind of morning roll (Ags. 1952), so called from the resemblance of its colour and texture to a piece of fog. Often used as a hairst-piece (Ags.¹⁷ 1952).

3. Nickname for Aberchirder, a village in Banffshire (Abd. 1990s). Also attrib. [Reduced form of Foggie Loan.]ne.Sc. 1958 Jessie Kesson The White Bird Passes (1987) 105:
"Aye. Or on the road to Foggie, maybe. ...."Abd. 1991:
Gang tae foggie an bottle skate.Sc. 1998 Aberdeen Evening Express 31 Mar 5:
Before expenses, more than £1100 was raised, with the profits going to the Foggie branch of the SNP and a local charity, yet to be chosen.