Wheech
April 26th 2025
Here’s a Scots term with no English equivalent. The entry for wheech covers a lot of ground outlining its various definitions: “To move through the air, to rush, dash with a whizzing sound; to make any quick forward movement, to walk fast”. It can also mean “To remove (something) with a speedy, sweeping, forcible movement, to snatch or whisk away”.
DSL’s earliest example comes from Sir Walter Scott in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1803): “I quhihher by thaim down the stream”.
In January 1948, the Forfar Dispatch used the term to depict the aftermath of fierce winds: “The Granny [chimney cowl] on the lum-heid [on top of the chimney] gaed wheekin up ee air afore it fell throwe the sky-licht ee washin-hoose”.
The vagaries of the Scots’ spelling dilemma are illustrated by Sheena Blackhall in Wittgenstein’s Web (1996): “I dinna recollect ae relation, stoppin mid-ben a spikk an wheekin oot a dictionar tae see gin a wird wis richt standart Scots or nae!”.
In 2000, the term appeared in Davie Kerr’s A Puckle Poems: “As the tourists wheech thro’, they wad gey aften fail ti appreciate, caa’in it ‘Sweet’ Armadale.”
Of course, such a handy term remains in widespread use in the twenty-first century. Take this example from the Dundee Courier in December 2022 which perfectly captures the spirit of the post-Christmas period: “Notes carefully written to thank absent, distant relatives for their kindness. Videos and photos taken to capture moments that would otherwise wheech past in the blink of an eye”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
