You know you're Scottish when your mother yells at you,"You're as black as the Earl o' Hell's waistcoat'.
What a great expression, lol. Very descriptive is it not? This is an old expression dating back to the 1700's in Scotland which is often used to describe how filthy you are. Such as a hard working man coming home from his day's work with his clothes filthy or a child after playing in the dirt, and coming home absolutely filthy. I have memories of my mother yelling at me as a child because I was always digging in dirt, mud or playing in a pile of bricks that I had found somewhere. I always had a habit of falling over too, so I was often getting my clothes filthy one way or another, lol. As a small child my mother would often change my clothes 2 or 3 times a day or I was grounded and sent upstairs to have a bath. I laugh at it all now but my mother was not impressed at how filthy I got out having fun.
The expression can also mean pitch black such as a dark night sky without any light or even a dark stormy sky. Scotland was always a very religious country; so the devil was always feared and given the name the Earl of Hell and was said to be dressed all in black.
Another term often used in Scotland is mawkit, which means dirty. As in, you have gotten your clothes dirty from some activity or something that is filthy and one says; eww, look at that, it's mawkit.
Black affronted; is another expression used in Scotland, which is nothing to do with race whatsoever. It means to be absolutely embarrassed. Example of this would be unexpected house guests that turn up unannounced and you are in the middle of doing your housework or worse your house is messy. A Scottish woman would say she was black affronted.
Throw a tartan fit, lol, that's another good one that is used by us Scotts. We do love our tartan after all.
In the Edinburgh region they say, what a red neck or rid neck in that context also. Coming from the west of Scotland I hadn't hear this expression until I lived there for 3 years in the late 70's. A pink fit is more modern language to mean similar embarrassment. I recall one of my mother's friends using that term.
White heather is a lucky charm in Scotland, which we give to someone as a keepsake if they are going away somewhere , and the lucky white heather is to bring the person good luck wherever they go. We also use lucky white heather at our weddings too. We give this to our guests as a keepsake and the married couple also have their lucky white heather worn on the day. I had this at my wedding in Australia, which my mother sent over to Scotland for along with tartan ribbon and silver horseshoes. I still keep my lucky white heather in my china cabinet as a lucky charm.
So there you go, a wee bit of Scottish education for you about the use of colours in our language and customs.
