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 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BEARDIE, Bairdie, n.² A name given to the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, and sometimes to the loach, Cobitis barbatula. [′birdi, ′berdi]

1. The three-spined stickleback.Sc. 1825 Jam.²:
Beardie. The three-spined stickleback. It has the name Beardie for the same reason for which it receives its Eng. name, because of the sharp prickles about its head.Sc. 1828 Blackwood's Mag. (Sept.) 274:
In mute . . . hope of some time or other catching a minnow or a beardie.Lnk. 1893 J. Crawford Sc. Verses and Sangs 109:
The haun o' maraudin' skule wean Never kittled the wame o' the wee whiskered bairdie.sm.Sc. 1979 Alan Temperley Tales of Galloway (1986) 84:
For several days during a spell of perfect weather in that summer, Jane Crosby, a woman in her early forties, had heard her son speaking of meeting a 'beardie', who was his friend, in the garden. She thought little of it: doubtless the boy was playing by some stream or pool, lying on the bank and trailing his little hands in beside the sticklebacks and minnows.Ayr. 1879 R. Adamson Lays of Leisure Hours 49:
The burns we catched the beardies in.Gall.(D) 1901 Trotter Gall. Gossip 418:
A boy durstna try tae grup a beardie for fear o' the jail.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.

2. The loach.Lnk. 1825 Jam.²:
Beardie. A loche, Cobitis fluviatilis barbatula.

Comb.: beardie-lotch(ie), -letchie, -loochie, -lorchie, †-lowie. The loach.Lth. 1825 Jam.²:
Beardie-lotch, evidently from the six small fibres or beards on its upper mandible.Rxb. 1908 Trans. Hawick Arch. Soc. 76/1:
A favourite pastime with many was “gumping” for “baggies,” “beardie-letchies,” and trout, when the water was low.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 51:
Beardie-loochie, -lorchie, -lotchie and †beardie-lowie, the loach.