Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1806-1933, 1987
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,1,0]
PROO, int., v. Also pru (Jam.), p(p)r(r)oo, phrroo, pbroo; prow-; pruie; ptrue, tproo (Jam.); pruite, p(t)ruch, prrutch, proche. Cf. Pree. [pru(tʃ)]
I. int. 1. A word of command to a horse to stop (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 579; s.Sc. 1966). Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. gives the meaning as "a call to a horse to come".Bwk. 1809 R. Kerr Agric. Bwk. 503:
To their horses, carters employed hap and wind in ordering them to either side, now mostly high-wo and jee; and in calling to stop used the incommunicable sound of prroo, now wo, or woy.Sc. 1821 Scots Mag. (Dec.) 529:
Phrroo — an expression used in Scotland, to stay the career of a horse or cow. . . . It is a sound produced from the throat, aided by a compressed quivering of the lips.Slk. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man xii.:
Soh! tproo! . . . sure the spirit of the evil one is in thee.Cld. 1825 Jam.:
In Clydes[dale] Ptrue is used, when one speaks kindly to a horse, or wishes to soothe him when restive.Lth. 1829 G. Robertson Recollections 163:
The . . . word of command, used in the Lothians to the horse . . . was thus: . . . pprroo, . . . to stop or stand still.
2. A call-word to a cow or calf (Sc. 1825 Jam.; Inv., Fif. 1957). Also in combs. or extended forms proo-leddy (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Lnk. Ayr. 1966); p(t)ruitchie(-leddy) (Rnf. a.1850 Crawfurd MSS. (N.L.S.) P. 71), proochie (Per., Lnk., Ayr., Rxb. 1960), ptrue(m)ai (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 135), proo-yae, prus (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), Sh. 1966), proche-proche (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.), prush-madame, proochie-moo. In 1828 quot. by extension, in dim. form prowie, as a pet-name for a cow.Sc. 1806 R. Jamieson Pop. Ballads II. 362:
Pbroo, pbroo! my bonny cow; (Pbroo, hawkie! ho, hawkie!)Bwk. 1809 R. Kerr Agric. Bwk. 503:
In calling a cow to be milked, hove, hove, often repeated, is the ordinary expression; anciently in the Lothians this was prrutchy, and prrutchy lady.Lth. 1825 Jam.:
Ptruchie or prutch-lady. Spoken to a cow when one invites her to draw near, or wishes to approach her, Loth[ian]. The form of this word in Clydes[dale] is Proochy, and in Dumfr[ies] Ptrua.Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch i.:
They waited on, and better waited on for the prowie's calfing.Ags. 1845 A. Smart Rhymes 189:
Moo, moo, prochy lady! Proo, Hawkie, proo, Hawkie! Lowin' i' the gloamin' hour, Comes my bonnie cow.Bnff. 1847 A. Cumming Tales 49:
[She beheld] her own identical brocked owse. "Pruie, pruie," cries Sarah.Kcd. 1861 E. B. Ramsay Reminisc. 70:
I have a distinct recollection of hearing, when a child, more than sixty years ago, the dairymaids at Fasque calling to the cow, "Prutchee, mou; prutchee, madame." This invocation, it seems, is common in Nithsdale, and is simply a corruption of the French, "Approchez moi; approchez, madame."Lnk. 1889 A. MacLachlan Songs 45:
Prutchie, prutchie, prutchie, kye! Prutchie, prutchie, prutchie! cry!Slg. 1932 W. D. Cocker Poems 89:
Oh, proochy-leddy! Maillie dear, Guid lass, I've drained ye dry!Inv. 1933 I. Macpherson Land of our Fathers xii.:
Her strong voice swept from the river-meadows, through the quiet house, calling, "Proo-yae! Proo-yae!"Nai. 1987 David Thomson Nairn in Darkness and Light (1988) 273-4:
... and I have read but never heard of a beautiful way of calling a cow to you - Prush, Madame, Approche, Madame.
II. v. "To drive cows or horses with the shout prus" (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), Sh. 1966); to call to a cow. Vbl.n. prowing.Cai. 1872 M. McLennan Peasant Life 179:
She . . . entered the byre speaking soft prow-ings to the beasts that were to be in her charge.
