Scottish Word of the Day: Rook

Not the common bird, but an old Scots word meaning plunder. Although one of the most common uses is to indicate that you have no money left, it is unclear whether this is a general term, or whether it implies (as plunder does) that it was lost or stolen.

Scots may talk about being ‘rooked’ by salesmen, meaning that they feel they’ve paid over the odds for something, or have been fooled into buying something they don’t really need. As with a lot of words, it is applied to situations of varying seriousness. For example, paying over the odds for a television might have someone feeling ‘rooked,’ but having to pay ten pence extra on the bus might also spark complaints of ‘rooking’ from some of the more tight-fisted of Scots.

In more recent times, however, the word has come to be used as a general term for being ‘cheated’ or treated unfairly, in any situation.

The origin isn’t obvious - rooks and ravens have long been associated with evil and wrongdoing, but traditionally it has been magpies who have been pilloried for thieving things.