Scottish phrase of the day: Mad wae it

A shopper in the booze aisle of a supermarket prepares to get mad wae it. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

This weekend just past, waiters and bar staff dealt with hundreds of thousands of revellers in restaurants, pubs and clubs across the country. Most people will have been perfectly well-behaved - but some will have been pretty drunk, or, as some would say, “mad wae it”.

Scots who have already overindulged at the pub this festive season will often describe themselves as being mad wae it, but one could also say they are looking forward to, or anticipating, “getting mad wae it”.

Tracing the phrase’s origin is probably beyond this article, given its distinctly colloquial character. Though few examples of the term exist in literature, it’s awell established and widely used phrase, especially among young people in the west coast - but it’s certainly not restricted to that region.

Mad wae it has even made its way onto a Scotsman headline: this one snuck into a story about a then-16-year-old who had made a film about his wayward teenage years.

• Scottish phrase of the day: Fanny Toosh

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