Gàidhlig / English
Blineas

Blineas

Posted by Shelagh on Thursday 8 October 2015

This week we are looking at a relatively light-hearted subject: words connected to smiling.

The word blineas, meaning ‘silly grin’ was collected in South Uist and would be used thus: ‘Bha blineas air’ to mean ‘he wore a silly grin.’ A similar word was given by another speaker from the same place: plinn, to describe a ‘wide grin.’

According to the Rev. Angus MacDonald (1860 –1932) from Benbecula, and Minister at Killearnan, Ross-shire, who wrote about the history of South Uist, blineas meant ‘soft sawder,’ or flattery. It’s interesting that the most commonly used Gaelic word for ‘grin’ is braoisg, which is similar to brosgal, flattery.

There was another word from South Uist, smuig, which according to the speaker, meant ‘mischievous grin,’ but which is more commonly used to mean ‘snout.’ Perhaps in this context, smuig is more closely connected to the English word ‘smug.’

If something’s caused you to have a blineas, braoisg or smuig recently, why not tell us about it on Facebook or Twitter!

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