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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TERIBUS, n. Also teeribus(s), terribuss, terrybuss, t(a)iribus, tyribus, and in comb. teribus and teriodin, teeriodin, terriodin, terryoden, tiriodin, — ye Teri Odin, — ye Tairiodin. The slogan or war-cry of the town of Hawick in Roxburghshire (Rxb. 1825 Jam.); a local popular song incorporating these words in its chorus and sung esp. at the Hawick Common Riding festival (see quots.). [′tirɪbəs (ən ′tiri ′odɪn)]Rxb. c.1800 R. Wilson Hist. Hawick (1825) 343–4:
Tiribus and Tiriodin, We are up to guard the common . . . Now Tiriodin blaws the chanter.Rxb. 1837 in R. Murray Hawick Songs (1897) 30:
Teribuss, ye Teri Odin, Sons of heroes slain at Flodden.Rxb. 1873 J. A. H. Murray D.S.C.S. 18:
The accredited method of arousing the burghers to any political or civic struggle is still to send round the drums and fifes “to play Tyribus” through the town.Rxb. 1898 Craig and Laing Hawick Trad. 38:
The Hawick slogan, “Tairibus ye Tairiodin”, gives us phonetically, if not orthographically, some old battle cry or chorus of a very dim and very distant past.Rxb. 1949 Scotsman (11 June):
The followers, accompanied by the Provost and Magistrates, sang “Teribus”.Rxb. 1965 Hawick Express (21 July) 4:
“Haaick for ever an independant” — words that are immortalised in the last verse o' Teribus.