Scottish word of the day: Skelp

A somewhat onomatopoeic word that once put the fear of God into misbehaving children across Scotland, a skelp means to beat or to slap.

Widespread among hacked-off parents of yesteryear, use of the term was never far away from a threat to a son or daughter’s hindquarters.

Indeed, a skelped bum was rivalled only by a trip to the dentist or a Monday morning on the list of things children dreaded most.

Skelp is also a term used in metallurgy to describe a sheet of plate metal rolled into a tube.

We can only urge parents not to conflate the two. Ever.

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