Lum
December 20th 2025
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) trace the history of this term for a “chimney… [or] a chimney stack” back to the seventeenth century. The earliest citation comes from the records of the Hilderstoun Silver Mines in 1609: “Great naillis to the lumb of the melting mylne”.
With the lum being such a vital part of the home, it’s no surprise that the term has been used so widely over the years and has found its way into expressions such as lang may yer lum reek or “the price is gaun up like a lum on fire”. This latter phrase, found in R.J. MacLennan’s In Yon Toon (1909), unfortunately remains relevant.
No longer such a common sight, lums once played an important role in people’s lives and routines. James Robertson illustrated this in a piece for Chapman in 1988: “in the days whan Auld Reikie wis Auld Reikie, ye cud aye tell frae our house whan it wis dinner-time bi the lum-reik that stertit up in thon muckle toun”.
People still use the term, as this example from a piece on the perils of smoking in the Daily Record in March 2023 illustrates: “A 60-a-day professional, Wee Isa smoked like the proverbial lum – how she made it to the age of 81 should be the subject of a special edition of The Lancet – and I was reminiscing the other day about how we at least put her off the hugely dangerous practice of smoking in bed”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
