Uncouth

unco (pronounced ung-ka) Unco means very or extremely; the island has a whisky trail for the unco drouthy. The phrase unco guid is used to describe those who are excessively religious, self-righteous, or narrow-minded. One of Burns's most well-known poems is the 'Address to the Unco Guid', an attack on the rigidly righteous. Unco is also used to mean strange or unfamiliar. The word is also a Scottish variant of uncouth.

Ray wouldn't be photographed, but I thought his pint would do. Ray says he's uncouth, narrow-minded and self-righteous. He's not any of those (except perhaps uncouth), but I was stuck for an unco picture.

It was hot today, and a friend and I cooked in the shade in the gardens near work. I went out with some friends in the evening and chatted the evening away over cool beer and a Thai meal. The Scottish dictionary came out and the Dictionary Project was discussed. Neither myself nor Lindsey know the word unco and she's from near Edinburgh and I'm a Highlander. Perhaps it's a west coast word.

Address to the Unco Guid

1.
O ye, wha are sae guid yoursel,
Sae pious and sae holy,
Ye?ve nought to do but mark and tell
Your neebours? fauts and folly ;
Whase life is like a weel-gaun mill,
Supplied wi? store o? water ;
The heapet happer?s ebbing still,
An? still the clap plays clatter !

2.
Hear me, ye venerable core,
As counsel for poor mortals
That frequent pass douce Wisdom?s door
For glaikit Folly?s portals :
I for their thoughtless, careless sakes
Would here propone defences -
Their donsie tricks, their black mistakes,
Their failings and mischances.

3.
Ye see your state wi? theirs compared,
And shudder at the niffer ;
But cast a moment?s fair regard,
What makes the mighty differ ?
Discount what scant occasion gave ;
That purity ye pride in ;
And (what?s aft mair than a? the lave)
Your better art o? hidin.

4.
Think, when your castigated pulse
Gies now and then a wallop,
What ragings must his veins convulse,
That still eternal gallop !
Wi? wind and tide fair i? your tail,
Right on ye scud your sea-way ;
But in the teeth o? baith to sail,
It makes an unco lee-way.

5.
See Social-life and Glee sit down
All joyous and unthinking,
Till, quite transmugrify?d, they?re grown
Debauchery and Drinking :
O, would they stay to calculate,
Th? eternal consequences,
Or -your more dreaded hell to state -
Damnation of expenses !

6.
Ye high, exalted, virtuous dames,
Tied up in godly laces,
Before ye tie poor Frailty names,
Suppose a change o? cases :
A dear-lov?d lad, convenience snug,
A treach?rous inclination-
But, let me whisper i? your lug,
Ye?re ailblins nae temptation.

7.
Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman ;
Tho? they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human :
One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do it ;
And just as lamely can ye mark
How far perhaps they rue it.

8.
Who made the heart, ?tis He alone
Decidedly can try us :
He knows each chord, its various tone,
Each spring, its various bias :
Then at the balance let?s be mute,
We never can adjust it ;
What?s done we partly may compute,
But know not what?s resisted.

Robert Burns