Scottish word of the day: Guddle

THERE are a great many words in the Scots language to describe a mess of rather impressive proportions, with terms like ‘tip’ and ‘midden’.

A bedroom in a 'bit of a guddle'. Picture: Daniel Hoherd/CC

Less well known, perhaps, is the word ‘guddle’ which has the added appeal of describing not only the mess typical of a teenager’s bedroom but also any confusing or complex situation.

For example, a person could find themselves in a bit of a guddle if they slept in and missed the bus to work, or attempting to book holday tickets online could be a total guddle for some folk.

‘Guddling’ is a term used to describe attempts to catch fish with your bare hands - a rather messy and difficult task which would fit in with the widely-accepted definition of something messy or confusing.

It is thought that the term previously applied to any mess involving water - perhaps stemming from the fish-catching definition - such as children guddling around in a puddle, and is perhaps onomatopoeically-derived from the noise made by hands in water scrabbling around for fish.