Gàidhlig / English
Scuidsearachd

Scuidsearachd

Posted by Shelagh on Thursday 26 March 2015

The word scuidsearachd was collected in North Uist and was used to describe someone messing about while carrying out a task, with the example being given of women making tea at a whist drive: “Bha mi a’ scuidsearachd aig tì” – ‘I was messing about at tea.’

According to the person who gave the word, scuidsearachd is similar to luidreadh, which also appears in the DASG Fieldwork Archive, collected in South Uist. Luidreadh can be used with two meanings: “messing about as in a child playing in soap suds” and “being tossed about whilst on a boat.”

Luidreadh is used in the first sense in ‘Song to a Ewe’ in The Songs of Duncan Ban Macintyre:

Té ri bùrn, is té ri mòinidh,
Té ag cur seòl air an ainneal;
Té 'ga phostadh ann an tuba,
Té 'ga luidreadh, té 'ga ghlanadh;

One sees to water, one to peats,
another keeps the fire well trimmed;
one tramps it in a tub,
One wallows it, and one rinses it.

The word is used in the second sense in An Cath Spioradail, Ewen MacEachen’s Gaelic translation of Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli:

tha e a’ càrnadh suas peacaidh air muin peacaidh, is ga chruadhachadh fhein anns an olc. Mar sin tha e ga luidreadh fhein san eabar, a’ tuiteam o dhorchadas, gu dorchadas, o shloc gu sloc, an sior dhol nas fhaid’ o rathad an t-sàbhalaidh, agus an sior mhìreadh ciont’ air cionta, nas lagha na thèid a thiarnadh le gràsan sonraichhte.

[the soul] heaps sin upon sin, and hardens itself in its evil ways. Floundering in the mire, it rushes from darkness to darkness, from one pit to another, always moving farther from the path of salvation and multiplying sin upon sin, unless strengthened by an extraordinary grace from Heaven.

Are you familiar with the words scuidsearachd or luidreadh? If so, we would be interested to hear from you through Facebook or Twitter.

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