A Word of Ulster Scots 10

Let’s face it, most of the Ulster Scots meanings for the word “face” are shared with English but we’ll try and keep a “guid face “ on matters linguistic this good day.

Of course there has to be a sense of the word that relates to the cutting of peats, what I like to think of as the signature activity of not only the Ulster Scots but also the Irish and the Scots. The front or “breesht” of a peat bank i.e. that part of the “boag” or “moss” from whence peats were cut, was referred to as the “face”.

Another common meaning for “face” would be the cutting or trimming of the side of a hedge, often accomplished with the use of a “slasher”, on occasion, a “bull hook”.

If a business was failing, it might have been described as “no bein’ fit tay wash its face” although this carried no implications or inferences about the personal habits or hygiene of the proprietors or employees.

There is no shared understanding with English of the use of “face” to mean court, not the venue where the law is dispensed or a royal entourage or indeed a tennis, volleyball, basketball or squash playing area, but rather in the sense of paying court, having a romantic relationship with someone that you hope to marry. Or at least with someone you want to know better than you do at present.

It might mean asking someone out on a date or to go for a walk or to take a breath of air outside a dancehall. Most importantly, it was never used in conversation with the object of your affections rather it was employed when conversing with third parties (“Are you for facin her the morrow?” “A’m gan tay face him nay metter what onybody says”)

Not every bit of “courtin’ in the kitchen” led to an encounter with the clergy or the Registrar or indeed an irate father. However, this latter, if and when encountered, might have been inclined to “pit on a face” (look not best pleased) and mair nor yin o the wans I come across tried to “ate the face aff me”, something completely different from what I had been trying to accomplish with my new friend although the description may conjure an image which might have borne a passing resemblance to our activities.

I have whiles been accused of “hayin’ nae skin on my face” for such impudence but at least I had the good grace “tay get a rid face”. As did my co-conspirators, on those occasions when someone had been able to “gie them a rid face”.

Violent fathers and indeed, violent spouses, when their blood was stirred, were in danger of “knockin’ the face aff ye”, “chowin’ the face aff ye” or “batin’ the face aff ye” if you were discovered “in flagrante delicto” (literally, while the crime is blazing, but in Latin rather that Ulster Scots). Overindulgence in “courtin’ “ or frequent detection by prying eyes and subsequent chastisement might result in a boady  “gan aff the face o’ the earth” or failing in health and undergoing dramatic and drastic weight loss, a sort of Ulster Scots alternative to the Atkins Diet.

Of course the fates have their own special way of punishing those men who inappropriately overindulge in the rituals of courtship during their youth and it is a sentence that results in sleep loss, poverty, high blood pressure and constant worry. When these poor unfortunates accede to the state of parenthood, fate sends them daughters. Maybe it’s karma.

 I have it on good authority that the first twenty-five years are the worst.

I am grateful to ma guid freen James Fenton, the poet and lexicographer, for his inspiration and his book" The Hamely Tongue" (Ullans Press) which continues to delight, educate and amuse.