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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

HARIGALS, n.pl. Also harrigals, -ells, -ills, harragles, harigalds (mainly s.Sc.), haricles, -galls, -gles, -kels; -gards (Ags. 1956). [′hɑrɪgəl(d)z]

1. The viscera of an animal, entrails of a fowl, the pluck (Sc. 1808 Jam., harigalds, haricles; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B., harigal(d)s). Gen.Sc. Also used occas. of human beings.Sc. 1702 Foulis Acc. Bk. (S.H.S.) 305:
for a syde of lamb . . . 1. 0. 0 for harigalls and head . . 0. 6. 0Sc. 1737 Ramsay Proverbs (1776) 36:
He that never eats flesh thinks harigalds a feast.Ayr. 1787 Burns Letters (Ferguson) No. 112:
If my harigals were turn'd out, ye wad see twa nicks i' the heart o' me.Ayr. 1823 Galt Entail vii.:
The various forms in which the head and harigals of the sheep, . . . were served up.Slk. a.1835 Hogg Tales (1837) II. 288:
I wish you had torn the harigalds of the old brock.Dmb. 1846 W. Cross Disruption xxxvii.:
Ye're no rinning the same risk o' getting a swurd in yer kyte or a ball through yer harragles.Gall. 1898 Crockett Standard Bearer xxxiv.:
May they burn back and front, ingate and outgate, hide, hair, and harrigals.Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 5:
Scots an Ingleesh in a fraineeshin, fidgin mad-keen ti teer the harrigals oot o other.ne.Sc. 1952 John R. Allan North-East Lowlands of Scotland (1974) 8:
The boats ride up the stream with a purr from their engines while a fisherman washes down the decks with a bucket deftly thrown in and drawn from the river. Another throws a last offering of harrigals to the birds; ... m.Sc. 1997 Liz Niven Past Presents 14:
The skillet skailed, bluid struled
Sutherland cursed tae hae
Sic reid hauns.
Hingin thro the sinnons
O its hin haughs
Harrigals fleitin in watter
The swine swayed
And the bern bauks creaked.

2. Fig. and metaph. uses:Sc. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Shep. iv. i.:
I think I've towzl'd his Harigalds a wee; He'll no soon grein to tell his Love to me.e.Lth. 1885 J. Lumsden Rhymes & Sk. 137:
A fit and convenient — albeit cracked — receptacle into which one can disgorge his overcharged harrigals of their superfluous cogitations.Sc. 1914 R. B. C. Graham Sc. Stories 59:
Man, he garred the very stour to flee aboot the Kirk, and, hadna' the big book been weel brass banded, he would hae dang the haricles fair oot.Abd.²⁸ 1948:
On seeing some fancy cooking: “Ye'll hae us a' poushioned wi' yer harigals!”

†3. Phr.: head and harigald money, money payable to mining serfs when a child was born. Hist. Harigald here may be possibly a corruption of Arle, earnest money, given in similar circumstances to colliers (see H. G. Graham Social Life Scot. (1899) II. 266).Sc. 1829 Scott Redgauntlet xxi. Note:
They [colliers and salters] esteemed the interest taken in their freedom to be a mere decree on the part of the proprietors to get rid of what they called head and harigald money, payable to them when a female of their number, by bearing a child, made an addition to the live stock of their master's property.

4. By extension: a very emaciated person or creature, or their remains; in gen., a fragment or remnant (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), harikels). Cf. Harrowbill.