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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GOWSTIE, adj. Also gowsty, †gousty, -ie, ¶ghousty, goosty (Watson). [Sc. gʌusti, Rxb. + ′gu:sti]

1. Of places (implying space and emptiness): dreary, desolate; eerie, ghostly; also of things (Bnff.⁷ 1927). Freq. of buildings: large, bare and cheerless (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Bwk.³, Rxb.⁵ (goosty) 1955), “not quite adapted for keeping out the storm, not weatherproof” (Rxb. 1825 Jam., ‡1923 Watson W.-B.), draughty (Bwk. 1942 Wettstein). Also in n.Eng. dial.Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 98:
The Architecture not so fine as good; Nor scrimp, nor gousty, regular and plain.Ib. 222:
. . . with Gaists to roam, In gloumie Pluto's gousty Dome.Kcd. 1778 in A. Ross Works (S.T.S.) 5:
Lang may thy stevin fill with glee The glens and mountains of Lochlee, Which were right gowsty but for thee.Mry. 1806 R. Jamieson Ballads I. 241:
Whan shook the eard, and all about A goustie murmur spread.Ags. 1815 G. Beattie John o' Arnha' (1826) 35:
A gousty cawdron boil'd an feam'd.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xiii.:
I would never have thought for a moment of staying in that auld gousty toom house.Slk. 1820 Hogg Winter Ev. Tales II. 235:
O but, mother, it's sae gousty, an' sae eiry, to lie up in yon loft ane's lane.Sc. 1834 H. Miller Scenes & Leg. (1850) vi.:
The lower vaults [of the castle] she had never the temerity to explore; they were dark and gousty, she said.Sc. 1849 M. Oliphant M. Maitland xvii.:
A large rambling house, conveying to one a shivering sensation, prophetic of gousty rooms and long, bare, wind-traversed passages.Sc. 1891 N. Dickson Kirk Beadle 72:
A great and “gousty” interior had this church.

Hence goustieness, dreariness, gloom, eerieness. Sc. 1825 R. Chambers Traditions II. 213:
The darkness and goustieness of that dungeon-like place of worship.

2. Of persons: ‡(1) wasted by age or disease; pale and emaciated (Abd. 1825 Jam.; Bnff.⁷ 1927; ‡Abd. 1955). This meaning seems to be confined to mn.Sc.(a); (2) breathless from over-stoutness, fat and flabby (Mry.¹, Abd.⁴ 1925; Abd. 1955).(1) Bnff. 1856 J. Collie Poems 121:
An' noo I clearly could descry A gousty visage, auld an' dry, Wi' shanks sae sma'.Abd. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb vi.:
The merchant, a stiff “gousty lookin' stock,” . . . had no help but to comply.Abd. 1903 W. Watson Auld Lang Syne 8:
Our own minister was over six feet in height, a grim “ghousty stock.” with a solemn, sepulchral, beyond-the-grave kind of voice, and who, as the ghost in Hamlet, would have made a fortune on the stage.

‡3. Of wind, weather or sea: wild and boisterous, stormy, tempestuous (Rxb. 1825 Jam., 1923 Watson W.-B.; Mry.¹, Bnff.⁷, Abd.⁸ 1927); sometimes involving the sense of eerie, ghostly, as in 1. Compar. gowstier. Also in n.Eng. dial.Mry. 1806 R. Jamieson Ballads II. 339:
Cald, mark, and goustie, is the nicht, Loud roars the blast ayont the hight.Rxb. 1820 Edb. Mag. (June) 533:
His [devil's] presence in the village was always announced by a loud and “gowstie wind, which soupit owre the houses.”Gall. 1832 J. Denniston Craignilder 61:
The win' blew by in gousty thuds And shook the windows o' the cluds.Bwk. 1876 W. Brockie Leaderside Leg. 16:
He never returned owre the goustie sea.Sc. 1896 Stevenson W. of Hermiston viii.:
Ye mind me o' a bonny ship pitten oot into the black and gowsty seas.Arg. 1896 N. Munro Lost Pibroch 152:
To live in a castle at night with doors on every hand for ghosts to rap at, and crooked passages without end for gowsty winds to moan in.Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 6:
Yeh gowsty nicht (wui a wund fit ti blaw doors oot at wundihs) a turbleent woare as the ordnar dang doon the firrst Peinelheuch Moniment.Sc. 1993 J. Derrick McClure in A. L. Kennedy and Hamish Whyte New Writing Scotland 11: The Ghost of Liberace 62:
The sea wes mair gowstier, the auncient craigs mair grumlier,