Gàidhlig / English
Spriodail

Spriodail

Posted by Abi on 5th May 2016

It’s a busy time of year again for farmers: lambing season. When sheep are pregnant with lambs and their wool is heavy sometimes sheep can fall onto their backs. Spriodail is our word of the week. It was recorded in South Uist and means:

‘When an animal was upside down, its legs would be kicking rapidly trying to regain its balance. “Bha e a’ spriodail air an làr”’ [It was lying on its back on the ground.]

In English there are different words for spriodail all over the country, for example kessing, cowped/ cowp-ed and riggwelted. If you see a poor sheep like this, it would be best to find the farmer, but if he isn’t around you should turn the sheep yourself. Be careful that the sheep doesn’t fall again – they are sometimes a wee bit confused afterwards!

If you know any other words or sayings with the same meaning as spriodail, or if you have any other English words for it why not let us know on Facebook no Twitter? We would be very interested to hear from you. You can leave comments under the blogs now as well.
 
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