Pock neuk
November 1st 2025
In the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) we are told that to be on one’s own (or another’s) pock neuk means “to be relying on one’s own (or another’s) resources”.
For those unaware, a pock neuk is the bottom or corner of a bag, especially one used to hold money. This literal meaning can be seen in Samuel Rutherford Crockett’s The Standard Bearer (1898): “I read in my Bible as I had opportunity, keeping it with one or two other books in the pokeneuk of my plaid whenever I went to the hills”.
DSL’s earliest citation of the phrase comes from The Scotchman in 1813: “He micht a steyt a while langer on his friend’s pock neuk”.
John Galt gave a succinct explanation in Sir Andrew Wylie (1822): “I came in on my own pock-nook, as we say in Scotland when a man lives on his own means”.
In May 1901, The Scotsman quoted Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy when reporting on the launch of an international exhibition in Glasgow: “We stand on oor ain bottom; we pickle oor ain pock-neuk, and ye’ll find us Glasgow folk no so far behind but what we may follow”.
Finally, in October 1992, Sotheby’s placed the following advertisement in The Scotsman: “Our next Scottish sale is on 15th December in Glasgow; if you have any pictures that you might like to include, please contact us as soon as possible. (Or to put it another way, pickle in your ain pock-neuk, or ye maun be waur mistrysted)”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
