Happy Hogmanay to all

What makes English so challenging to learn is also what makes it so colorful: its melting pot of root languages, idioms, and expressions. Aye (yes), for the latter we may thank our Scottish brethren. More than "Auld Lang Syne," on Hogmanay (last day of the year - a fireball-swinging, storytelling, eating and drinking all-nighter for Scots) they've many a colorful phrase to contribute:

* Speak o' the devil (When you've been talking about someone who appears).

* Dinnae (do not) marry for money (You can borrow it cheaper).

* Noo jist haud on! (Now just hold on, slow down).

* Am pure done in (I'm done in, tired).

* Yer aff yer heid (You're off your head, daft).

* I was sae hungert I coulda ate a scabby heided horse (So hungry I could've eaten a scabby-headed horse).

Some Scotch-Anglo words include auld (old) and bonnie (beautiful); crabbit (crabby, bad-tempered); gumption (common sense, initiative); reek (smell); and bide (wait). Dunderheid (-head) and galoot mean idiot (pronounced "eejit," also Irish); but they reserve screwball for totally unhinged/mad.

For "drunk," Scots get creative and abundant. A few we Americans use regularly (hammered, smashed, sloshed); but also worth mention are blootered, steamin', wrecked, bladdered, moagered, trollied, mortal, fu, guttered, and half-cut. If you're really, really drunk, "yer oot yer face" or "mad wi' it."

Common expressions the Scots deliver with wit:

* Whit's fur ye'll no go by ye (what's meant to happen to ye/you will happen).

* Dinnae teach yer granny tae suck eggs (don't try to teach someone what he already knows).

* Is the cat deid (dead)? (Your trousers are short, like a flag flying at half mast.)

* All his eggs are double-yoakit (someone who boasts).

* See you? See ma fist? (threat)

* Haud ma haund, Granny; the band's cummin'! (jibe at hand-holding couple)

* Not on your bumbaleerio (no way).

* Yur dooin ma heid in (please shut up).

* A clean shirt'l do ye (you won't live long enough to need a new one).

* Paralysis of the galluses (lazy)

A tall, thin person is a skinny malinky longlegs. A turkey is a bubbly jock. Wallies are false teeth and peely wally means pale. If he's ugly, he has a face like a smacked arse; unhappy - a face like a bulldog chewin' a wasp. Someone who looks sick is "death on a pirn stick" (a sort of bobbin).

So in Scots' honor on this first day of the new year:

May the best day you've ever had be the worst day you'll ever have. And may a wee mouse never leave your cupboard with a tear in its eye.

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at [email protected].