Barfit
August 22nd 2026
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) have a rather interesting entry for this word, which means, “barefooted”.
An August 1940 example from the Aberdeen Weekly Journal reminds us that it was once common for children to go barefoot: “And speaking of barfit why do our children nowadays all go shod in summer? We never see a barfit loon now except at the seaside”. An even earlier recollection was noted in the Aberdeen Evening Express in June 1990: “By the late 20s the sending of a bairn to the skeel barfit was dying out even though no welfare office would arrive to investigate what today would be regarded as a gross piece of child neglect”.
DSL tells us that the word was also used figuratively to mean ‘meatless’ in terms like, barfit broth and barefoot-kail. These both mean, “broth made with a little butter, without any meat having been boiled in it”. A related example appeared in the Sunday Herald in January 2005: “And last year the G1 Group – the corporate chain of Glasgow style bars and restaurants – opened their new venture The Bothy, with a menu full of basic, classic native dishes such as Scotch broth and barefit stovies”.
One editor at DSL also learned an additional, yet-to-be documented meaning from a Traveller friend. When asked if she would like a cup of tea, the friend replied, “Oh aye, but nane o yer barfit tea”. This meant that she wanted a biscuit or cake to eat with it.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
