Gab o'May

A cold north wind drives toward the English Channel.  May, in retreat, shall soon be declared March, leap-frogging April.  The petals of cherry blossoms that only yesterday, themselves, invaded every doorway with a message of cheer, have taken to the roads leading on to Dover.  While overhead, storm clouds occasionally let fall their brilliant, explosive bombs.

Though not yet rainin' auld wives and pipe staples, the dreich an' the droukit are a new language for the lashings of Spring as the Anglian fens 'come a moor for much as we may desire the glaise o'Summer.

      

English for Americans:

"rainin' auld wives and pipe staples" - Scottish phrase meaning a heavy downpour (auld men, I presume, are a contradiction: heavy but a trickle; they just don't work) -- when the Scots transplanted themselves to North America, they revised the saying somewhat, preferring to say "when a cow comes a pee'n on the flatrock o'the ruff" -- quaint isn't it.

   

"dreich" - Scots English: the wet; dismal conditions -- in the United States, the Scots English becomes "in the drench".

   

"droukit" - Scots English: a drenching; a soaking - probably from old Norse "drkkyr" meaning something closer to "drink" - here as drunken. You can begin to see the connection, yes?

   

"a new language" - Scots English refers to this kind of seasonal weather as the "Gab o'May" -- as if May has a language all its own.

   

"fen" - old English: wetland; a marsh; a bog - before they were tamed, the fens were swamp-like, though a Floridian or coastal South Carolinian or Georgian would have better related to them as a sawgrass marsh.

   

"moor" - old English & Scots English: wetland; a marsh; a bog - and, yes, sadly, the double-entendre of the French "amour" is intended (why pass up a good bilingual pun).

   

"glaise" - Scots English: a warming - probably from the French "glaise" meaning "clay" as in the English "glazing" of clay. Never hurts, when hoping, to be redundant. Well, redundant in the American sense of repetitious -- I dare not put archaic words forever out of employment.

This was originally posted to BUZZ on 3 May 2010.