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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GEO, n. 1. A creek or inlet of the sea with steep rocky sides, a cleft with deep water among rocks (Sh., Ork., Cai. 1954). Also †geow (Ork. 1808 Jam.), goe (Ork. 1795 P. Fea MS. Diary (19 Dec.)), †geoe (Ork. 1845 Stat. Acc.² XV. 42), gio (Sh., Ork. 1866 Edm. Gl.), gjo (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), 1914 Angus Gl.), gyo(e), geu, gue; †guo (Ork. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XVII. 235). Common in I.Sc. and Cai. place-names. Cf. Duo, id. [I.Sc. gjo:, sometimes djo:, Ork. + gju:]Sh. 1771 in Old-Lore Misc. III. iii. 163:
Snarravoe scattald . . . stretches down to the dyke of Gardon . . . and then westward . . . to a geo called Scurdageo.Cai. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ VIII. 159:
Betwixt Brabster and Freswick there is a deep hollow, called, in the dialect of the parish, the Wolf's geo.Ork. 1814 J. Shirreff Agric. Ork. App. 60:
A goe is a creek, or narrow inlet of the sea, with perpendicular sides, and distinguished from a cave by being open above.w.Sc. 1860 J. F. Campbell Tales I. 109:
I went out hunting, and my father's land was beside the sea, and it was rough with rocks, caves, and geos.Sh. 1898 “Junda” Klingrahool 16:
That sonorous, deep-mouthed gjo, Where the tempests of December Shed the foam like flaky snow.Cai. 1929 Scots Mag. (May) 92:
The white cottages nestle at the foot of the great brown cliff at the head of the “goe”, which even on the most slumberous day of summer keeps on “girnin', girnin'.”Ork. 1934 E. Linklater M. Merriman xxxiv.:
They drove another [trawler], borne like Mazeppa on a giant horse, hard ashore in a Westray geo.Sh. 1939 A. C. O'Dell Hist. Geog. Sh. 45:
The remarkable tunnel and gio formations . . . of the island [Fair Isle].

2. A ravine (Ork.⁵ 1954).Ork. 1894 W. R. Mackintosh Peat-fires 249:
During her husband's lifetime they had dwelt at a farm in the hillside of Birsay, called the “Mill-gue”, or the Mill-burn — a “gue” meaning a deep burn or water-course.Ork. 1911 Old-Lore Misc. IV. iv. 185:
I tha bonny lang daes o' the voar-time . . . whin da bonny baim-flooers raise bae the burnside, an' dan da May flooers i tha gues.