{"id":21762,"date":"2021-12-30T13:34:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T13:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=21762"},"modified":"2021-12-30T13:34:18","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T13:34:18","slug":"old-long-since","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=21762","title":{"rendered":"Old Long Since"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tomorrow is New Year&#8217;s Eve and if you&#8217;re celebrating it with others, you might just sing the song <strong>Auld Land Syne<\/strong>. So I thought I&#8217;d look into the history of the song and the meanings and origins of some of the words.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/scotsmusicgroup\/3791258313\/in\/photolist-K4WkD8-6M2c1D-85Rwed-azUuEP-7sdTtA-nDK7nc-nW9ckm-nVWwVK-2fJ1NZ-p1E7oS-pg873Q-pg8133-4JhB3y\" title=\"Auld Lang Syne\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/3538\/3791258313_2fa732a373_z.jpg\" alt=\"Auld Lang Syne\" width=\"640\" height=\"369\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Auld Land Syne<\/strong> was based on a Scottish folk song with parts of it written by Robert Burns. It acquired the traditional tune in 1799. Burns sent a copy the original song to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788 claiming that it had never been written down before, and that he got it from an old man. The first verse and chorus have a lot in common with the ballad &#8220;Old Long Syne&#8221;, which was published by James Watson in 1711.<\/p>\n<p>Here is Burn&#8217;s version of the song:<\/p>\n<p>Should auld acquaintance be forgot,<br \/>\nand never brought to mind?<br \/>\nShould auld acquaintance be forgot,<br \/>\nand auld lang syne?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chorus<\/strong><br \/>\nFor auld lang syne, my jo, (<em>For old times,  my dear<\/em>)<br \/>\nfor auld lang syne,<br \/>\nwe&#8217;ll tak&#8217; a cup o&#8217; kindness yet, (<em>And we&#8217;ll take a cup o&#8217; kindness yet<\/em>)<br \/>\nfor auld lang syne.<\/p>\n<p>And surely ye&#8217;ll be your pint-stoup! (<em>And surely you&#8217;ll buy your pint-pot<\/em>)<br \/>\nand surely I&#8217;ll be mine! (<em>and surely I&#8217;ll buy mine<\/em>)<br \/>\nAnd we&#8217;ll tak&#8217; a cup o\u2019 kindness yet,<br \/>\nfor auld lang syne.<\/p>\n<p>We twa hae run about the braes, (<em>We two have run about the hills<\/em>)<br \/>\nand pou&#8217;d the gowans fine; (<em>and picked the daisies fine<\/em>)<br \/>\nBut we&#8217;ve wander&#8217;d mony a weary fit, (<em>But we&#8217;ve wandered many a weary foot<\/em>)<br \/>\nsin&#8217; auld lang syne.<\/p>\n<p>We twa hae paidl&#8217;d in the burn, (<em>We two have paddled in the stream<\/em>)<br \/>\nfrae morning sun till dine; (<em>from morning sun till dinner time<\/em>)<br \/>\nBut seas between us braid hae roar&#8217;d (<em>But seas between us broad have roared<\/em>)<br \/>\nsin&#8217; auld lang syne.<\/p>\n<p>And there&#8217;s a hand, my trusty fiere! (<em>And there&#8217;s a hand my trusty friend<\/em>)<br \/>\nand gie&#8217;s a hand o&#8217; thine! (<em>And give me a hand o&#8217; thine<\/em>)<br \/>\nAnd we&#8217;ll tak&#8217; a right gude-willie waught, (<em>And we&#8217;ll take a right good-will draught<\/em>)<br \/>\nfor auld lang syne.<\/p>\n<p>This is what it sounds like in the original Scots:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IZz1FYg8fmc\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>For auld lang syne<\/strong> [f\u0259r o\u031c\u02d0ld l\u0251\u014b s\u0259in] means literally &#8220;for old long since&#8221;, and can be translated as &#8220;for old times&#8221;, &#8220;for days gone by&#8221; or &#8220;for the sake of old times&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>pint-stoup<\/strong> [p\u0259int.st\u028cup] means pint-pot, that is a tankard or drinking vessel containing a Scots pint (3 imperial pints \/ 1.696 L) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scottish_units#Fluid_volume\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>brae<\/strong> [bre\u02d0] = the brow of a hill, a hill, hillside or the high ground adjoining a river bank. From the Middle English <em>bro\/bra<\/em> (bank of a stream, raised edge of a ditch or pit), from the Old Norse <em>br\u00e1<\/em> (eyebrow, eyelash) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/brae\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>pou<\/strong> [pu\u02d0] (also pul and pow) = to pull, to pluck (fruit, flowers, etc), or to gather produce of any kind. From the Middle English <em>pullen<\/em>, from Old English <em>pullian<\/em> (to pull, draw, tug, pluck off) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/pullian#Old_English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>gowan<\/strong> [\u0261\u028cu.\u0259n] = common daisy (<em>Bellis perennis<\/em>). From the old northern English dialect word <em>golland<\/em>. Possibly from the Old Norse <em>gull\/goll<\/em> (gold) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/gull#Old_Norse\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>fiere<\/strong> [fi\u02d0r] = a companion, comrade, spouse, contemporary or equal. From the (Northumbrian) Old English <em>f\u01e3ra<\/em>, for <em>\u0121ef\u0113ra<\/em> (companion, comrade), from <em>\u0121e-<\/em> (co-) and <em>f\u0113ra<\/em> (traveller) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/feran#Old_English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>waught<\/strong> [w\u0251\u02d0xt] = to quaff, drink deeply, take large draughts (of); a draught of liquid, a long pull, swig or gulp of any drink. Of unknown origin.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sources: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Auld_Lang_Syne\">Wikipedia<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/e\/auld-lang-syne-meaning\/\">Dictionary.com<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/dsl.ac.uk\/\">DSL &#8211; Dictionaries of the Scots Language \/ Dictionars o the Scots Leid<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\">Wiktionary<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tomorrow is New Year&#8217;s Eve and if you&#8217;re celebrating it with others, you might just sing the song Auld Land Syne. So I thought I&#8217;d look into the history of the song and the meanings and origins of some of the words. Auld Land Syne was based on a Scottish folk song with parts of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,10,26,33,36,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-language","category-middle-english","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-old-norse","category-scots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21762"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21778,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21762\/revisions\/21778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}