Wirry-cow

In Scotland, a wirry-cow (Scots pronunciation: [ˈwɪɾɪkʌu̯, ˈwʌɾɪkʌu̯]) is a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object.^[1] Sometimes the term is used for the Devil or a scarecrow.

Draggled sae 'mang muck and stanes, They looked like wirry-cows

— Allan Ramsay

The word was used by Sir Walter Scott in his novel Guy Mannering.

The word is derived by John Jamieson from worry (Modern Scots wirry^[2]), in its old sense of harassment^[3] in both English^[4] and Lowland Scots,^[5] from Old English wyrgan cognate with Dutch wurgen and German würgen;^[6] and cowe, a hobgoblin, an object of terror.^[7][8]

Wirry appears in several other compound words such as wirry hen, a ruffianly character, a rogue;^[9] wirry-boggle, a rogue, a rascal; and wirry-carle, a snarling, ill-natured person, one who is dreaded as a bugbear.^[10]

References

1. SND: worricow Archived March 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
2. The Online Scots Dictionary: wirry
3. Jamieson, John (1808) Jamieson’s Dictionary of the Scottish Language p. 606
4. Online Etymological Dictionary Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
5. DOST: wirry Archived March 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
6. Onions, C.T. (ed.) (1966) The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology Oxford, p.1013
7. The Online Scots Dictionary: cowe
8. SND: cowe Archived March 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
9. DOST: wirry hen Archived March 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
10. SND: worry