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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

WANDER, v., n. Also waander (Sh. 1899 Shetland News (8 July)); waner (Rnf. 1873 D. Gilmour Pen' Folk 19; Dmf. 1913 A. Anderson Later Poems 93; Abd. 1923 J. R. Imray Village Roupie 27), wanner (Dmb. 1777 Weekly Mag. (20 Feb.) 273; Per. 1901 J. R. Aitken Enochdhu 268; Bnff. 1924 Swatches o' Hamespun 83; Lnk. 1923 G. Rae Lowland Hills 31), waun(n)er. Hence wannerer, wanderer (Lnk. 1877 W. McHutchison Poems 69). Sc. forms and usages. [′wɑndər; n.Sc., Per., wm.Sc. ′wɑnər. See D, letter, 4.]

I. v. 1. As in Eng. Sc. phr., deriv. and combs.: (1) to wander the road, to be a vagrant, to have no home (Cai., Per. 1973); (2) wanderer, a Covenanter during the times of persecution, esp. one ‘on the run' in the moors and hills. Hist.; (3) wandering folk, beggars, gipsies, tramps (Cai., Per. 1973); †(4) wandering star, a derisory name for churchgoers of a strongly evangelical cast who went from one preacher to another in search of spiritual edification; (5) wandering straw, an unsettled person who moves from job to job. See Straw, n., 2. (11).

Sc. formsm.Sc. 1968 Edith Anne Robertson, transl. Translations into the Scots Tongue of poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins 35:
How tae háin, - bydes there ony, is there nae sic, naegait wissen somegait flird or flamerie, faulderal, látchard, lace, lingle tae kep, or key tae keep
Tae taigle beauty, ward it, beauty beauty beauty, ... frae wanneran awa?Abd. 1995 Flora Garry Collected Poems 21:
I wis a stranger chiel in a strange laan,
An ootlin wannert back by some mischance
To tak a teet at the place far he eest to be.Abd. 1996 Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web 13:
Sae he didna wanner far frae his hame gairden, the warld he kent, an tint in thocht he stravaiged roon its boundaries.Uls. 2003 Belfast News Letter 24 May 31:
Anither screevin meenister Rev. W.F. Marshall, 'Tha Bard O Tyrone' didnae aften wanner this fer naorth. Howiniver he bae tae cum tae tha Laggan tha yinst fur in es poem 'The Hills of Home' he writ 'He made a power o level lan', At Portydown an at Strabane'.ne.Sc. 2004 Press and Journal 5 Jul 12:
" ... Farivver I wanner in the village or in the glens, I see the ghost o a wee fat quinie wi fite-blonde hair an aften think my brain that age again, nae maitter the body ... "

Sc. phr., deriv. and combs.(1) Ags. 1880 J. E. Watt Poet. Sketches 15:
There was ance a bit laddie that wandered the road, Wi' his backie ill happit, an's feetie ill shod.(2) Sc. 1728 P. Walker Six Saints (1901) I. 133:
Foot and horse of the enemy being searching for wanderers, as they were then called.Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality vi.:
The Wanderer (to give Burley a title which was often conferred on his sect).(3) Dmf. 1878 R. W. Thom Jock o' the Knowe 60:
He thought on the ways o' the wan'erin folk.(4) Sc. 1825 Aberdeen Censor 140:
The highflyers, wandering stars, or chosen saints, (for by one or other of these names they are designated,) who search out every new comer, and, after remaining a few months, fly off to some other place of worship.

2. (1) intr. To go astray, to lose one's way, to get lost (I., n.Sc., Per., Ayr. 1973).Rnf. 1861 J. Barr Poems 121:
'Twas a mist that cam on and they wandered.Sc. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped xv.:
I not only started late, but I must have wandered nearly half the time.

(2) tr. To cause to lose one's way, to lead astray, to lose or abandon deliberately (Ags., Per. 1973); also refl. = (1).Slk. 1892 W. M. Adamson Betty Blether 31, 85:
He managed to wander us a' wi' [his een] open . . . John excaized himsel' for wanderin' us.Gsw. 1920:
A story of a man who won an elephant in a raffle and said he got rid of him: “I tuik him doun tae the Coocaddens on Setterday nicht an wanert him.”Rnf. 1936 G. Blake David & Joanna xviii.:
I doubt he has wandered himself.Lnk. 1951 G. Rae Howe o' Braefoot 15:
Away ye go wi' the wee Englishman, and if ye can wander him up Braefit Common so much the better.m.Lth. 1956:
As we climbed up out o the glen the trees wandered us and we lost the road.Gsw. 1965 Gsw. Herald (15 Oct.) 12:
If he is not still too preoccupied with the efficiency of British Railways, who have been wandering his magazine.

(3) Ppl.adj. wandert, -(e)d, lost, stray, uncertain of one's own whereabouts (Sh., n., wm.Sc. 1973). Only poet. in Eng.Sc. 1745 Scots Mag. (June) 275:
Then frae the muir we brought the wander'd quey.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 210:
They never took thocht but it was a waunered dog.Gsw. 1904 H. Foulis Erchie viii.:
To coup them oot at Deid Slow on the Clyde, and leave them there wander't.Abd. 1922 G. P. Dunbar Whiff o' Doric 25:
They fand the waunnert bairn in Willie's oxter.Fif. 1958 Scotsman (18 Sept.) 6:
The street market where the workers stood about “like a lot o' waunert nowte”.

3. Fig. tr. To confuse, perplex, bewilder, bamboozle (Ags., Per. 1973). Also in colloq. Eng.Lnk. c.1870 Proc. Sc. Anthrop. and Folk-Lore Soc. (1948) III. iii. 75:
The rigs were ploughed in that form in order “to wander the fairies so that they couldna' shoot straucht.”Gsw. 1898 D. Willox Poems 37:
The auld ane, wi' his senseless queries aboot ae thing an' anither, fairly wan'ered me.Gall. 1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy xlviii.:
She smiled. That smile ‘wandered' the assistant. He promptly lost grip.Fif. 1901 G. Setoun Skipper Barncraig xix.:
It's me bein' so travelled that wanders me.Lnk. 1925 Hamilton Advertiser (19 Dec.):
Tae ken wha's wha fair wauner's me.

Ppl.adj. wandert, confused, bewildered, at a loss; mentally disordered (Sh., Cai., Ags., Per. 1973).Dmb. 1894 D. MacLeod Past Worthies 128:
He knew no French, he knew not the city, and he was in truth wandered.wm.Sc. 1914 Sc. National Readings (1914) 120:
I'm perfectly waunert, I'm clean bamboozled.Sc. 1926 H. M'Diarmid Drunk Man 4:
I've got fair waun'ert. It's no' that I'm sae fou' as juist deid dune.Gsw. 1970 G. M. Fraser General Danced 39:
He's no' a' there; he's wandered.em.Sc. 2000 James Robertson The Fanatic 182:
They had tried to hush him but the flow would not be stopped. Then Jean, that was already wandered, had lowped in and what she had had to say seemed to confirm that some at least of it was true. Edb. 2004:
Puir sowel's been wandert since his wife dee'd.

II. n. Confusion (Sc. 1911 S.D.D.).