Jeely
May 10th 2025
As every Scot knows, jeely is the Scots word for jelly. It is defined in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) as “a gelatinous substance, a table jelly” and as “a preserve of fruit juice and sugar. Also applied to jam or whole fruit preserve”.
This term gives us many inventive phrases, including jeely piece or jeely an piece. This is first cited in DSL from Chambers Journal in January 1839: “Ye have taken twice as much already as would have made jelly-pieces for ye”.
A jeely nose is a bloody nose. This appears in John J Lanvin’s Compass of Youth (1952): “Ye’d better rin up hame wi yer messages an get yer jeely nose cleaned”. A more recent example appeared in the Evening Telegraph in March 2021 when recapping a wrestling match: “In retaliation, George dived at his tormentor’s legs and dragged him to the canvas and by the time club officials pulled him off, the brave lad had got a little of his own back, even though he had incurred a jeely nose”.
A jam pot might be called a jeely jar, jeelie mug, jeelie can, or jeelie pig. When these had a deposit on them they could be used to gain entry to the cinema. This practice is remembered in Bo’ness, as recorded in the Flakirk Herald in February 2023: “The weekend starts, as all weekends should, with HippFest’s traditional Jeely Jar screening – a double bill of silent Charlie Chase comedies”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
