Scottish word of the week: Baffies

BAFFIES: they’re comfortable, cosy, and ideal for relaxing around the house in. And they come in pairs. We’re talking, of course, about slippers.

Colourful felt baffies. Picture: Complimentary

Though never a particularly popular term for the humble house shoe, it is thought to originate in the east coast of Scotland, particularly in Fife and Perthshire.

Baffies have made sporadic appearances in Scottish newspapers over the last two decades. In 16 March, 1991, an article in The Scotsman tells of the woman who, as quick as a flash, “slips on her baffies skites up the close stairs to her neighbour’s and chaps at the door”, while a Scotland on Sunday comedy review published nearly 10 years ago says: “The fireball of this show’s title is deliberately ironic, as Kay’s humour is more like a one-bar electric fire gently warming a pensioner’s baffies than a comedy inferno.”

More recent usage of the word appeared in another Scottish newspaper in 2011. Writing a story about Lorraine Kelly, the Daily Record referred to a foot injury the Dundee-born television presenter sustained during a charity trek in Kenya, forcing her to climb into her baffies during a broadcast of ITV show Daybreak.