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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

WHEETIE, adj. Also wheety, wheaty, whittie, quheetie. Mean, ungenerous, stingy, scurvy, shabby (Abd., Kcd. 1825 Jam.; ne.Sc. 1974); underhand, shifty, evasive (Kcd. 1880 Jam., whittie). [′ʍiti]Abd. 1837 Abd. Shaver (Oct.) 392:
Warbling some of his sweetest songs for a wheetie bottle of porter.Abd. 1875 W. Alexander My Ain Folk 122:
To grip at a' that they can get, though it sud be never so oonrizzonable or wheety-like.Abd. 1929 Banffshire Jnl. (29 Jan.) 2:
Fut can ye dee? Ye goakit stirks Ye're nae that scant o' wheety quirks.

[The fact that, though the word is peculiar to ne.Sc., the initial wh- is retained suggests that the word is of relatively recent orig., poss. a deriv. of Wheet, n.2, sc. ‘paltry, trifling, obsessed by small things'.]

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