In a book I read recently (one of Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street series) I came across a number of Scots words that were unfamiliar to me. One that I particularly like is wirlie, which, according the Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL), means:
“a place where a field-wall crosses a stream; an opening in a wall to let running water pass through”.
An interesting meaning that I would never have guessed from the word or the context. It is apparently a Shetland word which comes from the Old Norse árhilð (á = river, hlið = an opening or gap in a fence), according to Shetland Words – A dictionary of the Shetland dialect.
If you came across this word, without knowing the above, what would you think it meant?
In some contexts it might be a euphemism for being drunk or confused – he was a bit wirlie.
Are there similar words in any other languages?
The Old Norse hlið (of árhlið) would be cognate with Modern English “lid” which came from Old English hlid (lid, cover, opening, gate). Old English also had hlid-geat (a swing-gate, to prevent cattle straying from pasture across a road or to arable land) which is the origin of the East Anglian village name of Lidgate in Suffolk (Eastern England)
Other languages include:
Dutch: lid (eyelid)
German: Lid (eyelid)
Swedish: lid (gate)
Welsh: clwyd, llidiart (gate, hurdle)
Latin: clitellae (pack saddle)
Russian: калитка (kalitka “gate”)
Ancient Greek: δικλίς (diklís “double-posted doors, gates)
The first time I read it I somehow imagined something that goes into a loop or a whirl (probably because the word itself is close to “whirl”?).
I’m not quite aware of the concept of a word in Arabic for an opening in the fence to let the water out (probably a farmer would do good here), but if this concept is anything close to Aqueduct, then the Arabic for it would be Qantarah [قنطرة].
Apparently the dry walling term for a gap to allow water to pass when a wall crosses a stream etc. is called a “water smoot”.