Scottish word of the week: Pagger
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
A CURIOUSLY under-reported word, pagger has this biting, mucky quality to it that sounds like the thing it describes - a fight.
It is not used across the whole of Scotland, and anecdotally it seems to predominate in Edinburgh and the surrounding regions of the country’s east coast.
CONNECT WITH THE SCOTSMAN
• Subscribe to our daily newsletter (requires registration) and get the latest news, sport and business headlines delivered to your inbox every morning
What is certain is that there are a few playgrounds that will have rang with the immortal threat, “I’m gonnae pagger you!”
Urban Dictionary, the irregular and somewhat esoteric vine on which new words grow, describes pagger as meaning “to fight”. There are, of course, plenty of synonyms for this around Scotland: a square go, the rammy, and so on.
There is an English equivalent too. In the north of England, paggered is an adjective for someone who is tired or exhausted - a state you might find someone in if they’ve been on the receiving end of a paggering north of the border.
SEE ALSO
SCOTSMAN TABLET AND IPHONE APPS