Scottish word of the week: Boke

An inebriated student is helped inside an ambulance in Edinburgh's Grassmarket. Picture: Jane Barlow

“That’s mingin’,” is a not uncommon reply to a story furnished with overly graphic or unpleasant detail (like a burst pluke, for example); similarly, you might say that something “gives you the boke” (alternative spelling: “boak”), which conveys disgust more explicitly because it describes the act of throwing up. It can also generally describe a sickly feeling; it’s a markedly more flexible (and strangely charismatic) expression than simply saying that you feel ill.

There are other cousins of the word too that seem to have emerged more recently. Bowf is an unpleasant smell, but if you describe something as “bowfin’” then it could be applied in the same way as “boke” or “mingin’”.

Finally, you may have also heard reference to “the dry boke”. That’s when you, after you’ve thrown up (usually in a figurative sense), you keep retching anyway. Boggin’, isn’t it? (Yep, there’s another one.)

• Scottish word of the week: Pagger

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

• You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google +