Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GOWKIT, adj. Also gowket, -ed, †gou(c)kit, -et; -ed (Sc. 1825 Jam.), gockit, -et; goakit (n.Sc.). Foolish, stupid (Cai. 1900 E.D.D., Mry.¹ 1925; ne.Sc., Ags., m.Lth. 1955), deranged in mind. Cf. Guckit, id. [Sc. ′gʌukət, n.Sc. + ′gok-]Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems 41:
Cud I syne sit, just like a gowkit ass, Or shaw mysell less loyal to my lass?Ags. 1790 D. Morison Poems 187:
Fool goukit chield, sic stuff as that to true, Gin ye believe them, nane will credit you.Knr. 1803 Edb. Mag. (March) 213:
Out like a spait, 'mang landart fowk, And gowket lowns.Abd. 1824 G. Smith Douglas 48:
Here, in a cave that hands had never houket, There lived a man, wi' perfect grief was gouket.Per. 1857 J. Stewart Sketches 59:
When gowkit wives at close-heads muster, To blaw aboot their bairns an' fluster.Mry. 1865 W. H. L. Tester Poems 114:
Some gowkit loons — deil smack their croons — They left the door ajar, laddie.Lnk. 1922 T. S. Cairncross Scot at Hame 58:
Wee Tiddle-Toddle . . . Just a wee divert To a gowkit wife.Bnff. 1924 Swatches o' Hamespun 36:
“Funny that daicent chaps are near a' gawky, an' scoonrels hae pleasin wyes.” “Weel, he wis goakit. The sumph thocht himsel nae gweed eneuch for me.”Bch. 1946 J. C. Milne Orra Loon 4:
Her jaud o' a mither was never sae gockit!m.Sc. 1985 William J. Rae in Joy Hendry Chapman 40 18:
Weel, Ogilvy hytert tae his feet, and tellt His Majesty he wis awfy sorry but he wis the maist gowkit o owls.

Hence 1. gowketness, n., stupidity (m.Lth.¹ 1954); 2. gouketly, adv., foolishly, stupidly.1. Bch. 1832 W. Scott Poems 79:
Some wed for wantonness, an' some for show, An' some for gouketness, an' there they go.Abd. 1883 G. Macdonald Donal Grant I. xxiv.:
Mrs Brookes paused, lost in contemplation of the gowkedness of Eppy.2. Abd. 1824 G. Smith Douglas 121:
I'm gouketly guided sin' syne, sin' syne; Maist tint my bit townie sin' syne.