Eat up, ye’re at yer auntie’s
February 22nd 2025
This wee phrase is defined succinctly in the entry for auntie as “to help yourself liberally”.
This command to visitors (who are not necessarily visiting an auntie) makes a relatively late appearance in DSL. The first occurrence comes from Alan Spence writing in Streets of Stone: An Anthology of Glasgow Short Stories (1977): “All the glasses were drained and set down empty on the table. ‘C’mon now people,’ said Tommy. ‘Get wired in therr!’ ‘Eat up,’ said Mary. ‘Yer at yer auntie’s!’”.
In the 1990s, a commentator from Argyll gave us: “Eat up, ye’re at yer auntie’s: eat up!’. Later, in January 2002, the Guardian made this interesting comparison: “Further to Fritz Spiegl’s Liverpudlian adjuration to start eating (Letters, January), the Glasgow version is ‘Eat up, ye’re at yer Auntie’s’ – though why it should be grannies in Liverpool but aunties in Glasgow, I have no idea. My dad encourages diners with the words, ‘Stick in till ye stick oot!’, but then he’s a Church of Scotland minister (retired) so is naeb’dy’s auntie”.
The phrase remains popular among foodies, as seen in this September 2023 piece from the Scotsman: “Never has the phrase ‘Eat up, you’re at your auntie’s’ been more apt than when visiting the Sisters restaurant in Kelvingrove as you really do feel like you’re visiting a favourite relative and by Jove will you want to eat what’s put in front of you”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
