Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1834-1931, 1994-1996
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BODDAM, BODDOM, BODDUM, BUDDOM, n. Also boattom. The bottom of anything; the buttocks, as in St.Eng. Gen.Sc. See also Botham. [bɔdm, bodm Sc.; bʌdm s.Ayr., Gall.]Sh.(D) 1918 T. Manson Humours Peat Comm. I. xv.:
Dey want to kno aboot paets fae da boddam, and fae da boddam dey sall know.Bnff. 1882 W. M. Philip K. MacIntosh's Scholars vii.:
Ye have a rayther drier boddam [subsoil] nor me.Abd.4 1929:
"The grace is i' the boddam o' the dish the day," old saying when the grace was forgot.Abd. 1996 Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web 10:
" ... Jimmy! Stan teetle the door till I phone the Bobby. Stuff's bin gaun missin fur wikks noo frae my shoppie. I'll win tae the boddom o't afore the day's a meenit aulder. ... "m.Sc. 1994 Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay Forever Yours, Marie-Lou 43:
Last week thair, when ah wis reddin up the boattom drawer ae your chest-ae-drawers, ah cam acroass a photie...an auld photie fae back in the forties...Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 137:
In the wet clay at the pit boddom were the stead of the tackets and sparribles of the auld coal-hewers of langsyne.Gall. 1930 (per Wgt.3):
Then the buddom seemed to fa' oot o' a big angry lookin', drumly clood on the side o' Maldenoch.Slk. a.1835 Hogg Tales, etc. (1837) II. 305:
Poor Sandy maunna gang till the boddom o' the sea.
Hence boddomless, adj.Mearns 1929 J. B. Philip Weelum o' the Manse iv.:
Ivry congregation is the better o' bein' shakken ower the boddomless pit ivry noo and than.
Combs.: (1) boddom-breadth, "the space necessary for seating oneself" (Bnff.2, Abd.19, Ags.1 1935); (2) boddum-lyer, "a designation given to a large trout, because it keeps to the bottom" (Dmf. 1825 Jam.2); (3) boddum-pleuch, plough for turning up the subsoil; (4) boddum-runner, "the boards between the hassins of a boat" (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.; Sh.7 1935).(1) Knr. 1895 "H. Haliburton" Dunbar in M. Sc. 100:
Little we seek, nor meikle mair desire — Our boddom-breadths and a sma' blink o' fire.(3) Abd.(D) 1931 R. L. Cassie in Bnffsh. Jnl. (21 April) 5/3:
The boddom-pleuch gyangs deep eneuch, The thortin braks the clay sae teuch.
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"Boddam n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/boddam_n>
