Annotator: Robert Peattie was born in Fife in 1839. He trained and worked as a teacher in Scotland before emigrating to New Zealand with his family in 1875.

Copy: Abridged Jamieson, edited by John Longmuir, 1867

Sample annotations:

buckie, noun a certain professor of Aber. who had a hobby for conchology, was often referred to as the ‘professor o’ buckie-shells’.b

bum, noun At a country concert in N. Z. a labourer with high notions of his own singing, was quizzically encored by the audience. Highly pleased with himself, he called familiarly to the clever accompanist, ‘C’wa, Liz, an gie’s anither bit bum.’ He was from Aberd. I heard him. R.P.

cran, noun A barrel or cran holds two clad gross of herrings. A clad gross = 12 doz of 13 each. Hence in a barrel there should be 312 herrings. ’Twas so in 1850. R.P.

dabbie, noun The Rev Dr Cochrane, Cupar Fife, was wont to get a supply of these ‘dabbies’, which, being made of flour and water only, were true ‘unleavened bread’ – They were like the thin ‘water biscuit’ to be bought nowadays, but were fully six inches in diameter. 1913 R.P. [RP also gives a drawing of a dabbie, dated 1860]

ebb, adj. in Fife, in youth, a companion has said to me, ‘The burn’s gey aib; (ebb) we could gump for troots fine.’ R. P.

fuffle, noun (2) sound of dresses moving, softer than rustle.

Further Reading
Peattie’s annotated Jamieson is discussed in the following articles:

Rennie, S. (2020) ‘The First Scottish ‘National’ Dictionary: John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808/1825)’, in The Whole World in a Book: Dictionaries in the Nineteenth Century, ed. by S. Ogilvie & G. Safran (Oxford & New York: OUP).

Rennie, S. (2024) ‘The Emigrant Dictionary: Robert Peattie’s annotations to Jamieson’, in Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, 45:2 (forthcoming).