Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CLYTACH, Cleitach, Cleidach, n.¹ and v.¹ Obs. except in poetry. [′kləitəx, ′kləidəx]

1. n. Talk, chatter in a foreign tongue; “discourse of any kind, particularly applied to the Gaelic language” (Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems, Gl., cleidach); balderdash.Sc.(E) 1926 “H. McDiarmid” Drunk Man . . . Thistle 37:
He [God] gied man speech but to the Scots gied nocht Barrin' this clytach that they've never brocht To onything but sic a Blottie O As some bairn's copybook micht show.Abd. 1931 R. L. Cassie in Abd. Press and Jnl. (11 Feb.):
We stoy roon an' harken weel Tae quines an' loons sae hallach, Bit siccan clytach maks us feel, It's sair tae thole the wallach.Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 48:
a plooman nae gien til blether
nor clytach, dour as glaur, stiff as ice.

2. v. “To talk in a strange language; particularly applied to people discoursing in Gaelic” (Abd. 1825 Jam.², cleitach, clytach; also Bnff.⁴ 1912); “to talk inarticulately, to chatter; applied to the indistinct jargon uttered by a child, when beginning to speak” (Ib.).Abd.(D) 1932 R. L. Cassie Scots Sangs 42:
Scots or Gaelic will it be That oor folk will clytach free.