Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TRINKUM, n. Also trinkim; tringum; trinklim. [′trɪŋkəm]

1. Gen. in pl.: trinkets, nick-nacks, gew-gaws, odds and ends of equipment or finery. Also in dial. and colloq. Eng. from the 17th c.Sc. 1754 in Scott Rob Roy Intro.:
If you'd send your pipes by the bearer, and all the other little trinkims belonging to it.Sc. 1816 Scott Letters (Cent. Ed.) IV. 250:
All very fine in the scarfs and trinkums of their respective lodges.Abd. 1887 Bon-Accord (8 Oct.) 5:
I hae a bottle o' fusky, an' the wife she looks oot the ither trinkhms. Reduplic. form trinkum-trankum(s), id. Also attrib. and in Eng. dial.Ayr. 1821 Galt Annals xii.:
New novel-books, and trinkum-trankum flowers and feathers.Sc. 1827 C. I. Johnstone Eliz. de Bruce I. iii.:
Tea-drinking trinkum-trankums.Sc. 1837 Tait's Mag. (June) 357:
The men folk were hungering as sair for tidings as the women for the nonsense trinkum-trankums Robin brought.

2. Anything of its kind ugly and worthless, a piece of trash (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 198); also fig. a person of somewhat loose character and attrib. (Id.).Gregor:
They're a gey tringum set.