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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TIPPENNY, n. Also tippany, tippony, tip(p)(e)n(e)y, and reduced forms as in 4. Sc. forms and usages of Eng. tuppeny, two-penny. [′tɪp(ɪ)ne]

1. Sc. combs.: (1) a tippeny Ann or occas. Jean, a tawdry, rather tarnished-looking woman (Abd. 1972); ‡(2) tippeny-book, a child's elementary reading-book, succeeding the penny-book in difficulty and costing twopence in the pre-decimal coinage (see Penny, n., 4. (2)). See 3.; (3) tippeny-man, a workman having some more responsibility and a higher rate of wages (orig. twopence per hour) than the others in a squad, though not equivalent to a charge-hand or foreman (Edb. 1962); (4) tippeny-reel, a gay vigorous dance, prob. from the balls organised by local dancing-masters with twopence as the price of admission; (5) tuppeny struggle, a mutton pie. (6) tuppeny-tightener, a jocular name for a twopenny portion of fish and chips. Cf. Eng. slang tightener, a substantial meal.(2) Edb. 1869 J. Smith Poems 33:
I rattled through The Tipp'ny Book like drift!(4) Sh. 1901 T. P. Ollason Mareel 12:
Nanny an' da Satan's instrimunt wir dancin' a tippeney reel a' roond da place.(5) Gsw. 1935 Victor McClure Scotland's Inner Man 149:
MUTTON PIES.-Vulgarly known in Glasgow as "Tuppeny Struggles." They are small pies made with hot-water paste, filled with minced mutton, and served hot with gravy, which is poured into them at the last moment through holes left in the paste lids.Gsw. 1990:
Tuppeny struggle was a common Glasgow name for a Scotch pie.(6) Edb. 1931 E. Albert Herrin' Jennie 227:
Div ye mind the tuppeny-tighteners we used to hae oot o' newspapers?Edb. 1964 J. T. R. Ritchie Singing Street 51:
The original fish supper (going back to the 1890s) was called a “tuppenny tight'ner.”

†2. A twopenny piece, a large copper coin of the reign of George III., not to be confused with Tippence above.Ayr. 1890 J. Service Notandums 10:
Puin' oot a croon-piece which he believed at the time to be a tippenny.

‡3. = 1. (2) (n., wm.Sc., Dmf., Rxb. 1972).Lnk. 1895 W. Fraser Whaups ii.:
A more advanced pupil who for some weeks had been tackling with the first few pages of the “Tippenny”.Ags. 1899 Barrie W. in Thrums viii.:
In the glen my scholars still talk of their school-books as the tupenny, the fower penny, the saxpenny.

4. Also in reduced forms tip, tipon. Weak ale or beer sold at twopence the Scots Pint 3 imperial pints. In gen. use till c.1750. Now obs. exc. hist. Also in attrib. use as in tippeny ale, -beer, -club, -house, an ale-house, -revenue, the excise duty on twopenny ale.Sc. 1706 Acts Parl. Scot. XI. 338:
The two penny ale and bear of Scotland shall be only charged with the same excise as the small bear of England.Sc. 1711 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 10, 19, III. 302:
To braw Tippony bid Adieu . . . She ne'er gae in a Lawin fause Nor kept dow'd Tip within her Waw's . . . Besides a pint of Tipon-tight.Sc. 1715 Laing MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) II. 176:
Our praeses title of honour's Master Easy, desclaiming that of Lord as comon among tippeny clubs.Sc. 1734 J. Cockburn Letters (S.H.S.) 18:
Nothing is to be gott but nasty Barm which we call Tuppeny.Abd. 1739 Abd. Jnl. N. & Q. V. 262:
He frequented the tippenny house, drank to the health of King James.Dmf. 1746 R. Edgar Hist. Dmf. (1915) 45:
Willing to let all ly as they find except the tipenny revenue.Sc. 1758 Session Papers, Memorial I. Gilchrist (3 Jan.) 8:
It has but an ugly Appearance, that this poor Woman, when attending at the Mill, should be decoyed into a Twopenny-house so early in the Forenoon.Sc. 1771 Smollett Humphry Clinker (Melford to Phillips, 3 Sept.):
A chopin of twopenny, which is a thin yeasty beverage, made of malt, not quite so strong as the table-beer of England.Ayr. 1790 Burns Tam o' Shanter 107–8:
Wi' tippenny, we fear nae evil; Wi' usquabae, we'll face the Devil!Sc. 1819 Scott Leg. Montrose iv.:
A huge barrel of two-penny ale.s.Sc. 1857 Wilson's Tales of the Borders XV. 4:
A license to sell whisky, and tippenny, and other liquors.Hdg. 1892 J. Lumsden Sheephead 142:
Frae champagne down to tip'ny beer.Edb. 1913 F. Niven Ellen Adair ix.:
The smell of tippeny on a boss's breath.Mry. 1924 Swatches o' Hamespun 78:
The byockin wife tae save her life Her kyack an' tipp'ney draws This hogmanay.

Deriv. ¶tippanize, v., to drink small beer, to tipple.Sc. 1718 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 79:
Your Tippanizing . . . gars me gang duddy.