An A to Z of the Doric: an occasional series. E

Doric, the dialect spoken in the North-East of Scotland is rich in words and phrases associated with the land and the sea. Over the next few weeks I will try to illustrate some of them in an A-Z using examples of their use taken mainly from Buchan Claik, The Saut an the Glaur o't written in 1989 by Peter Buchan and David Toulmin.

EEL: Completely empty.

"The roan coo's fair eel." (The red cow is dry, empty of milk.)

This is a bottle, sadly empty, of Glengoyne single malt whisky. It was distilled on the 8th of April 1968, a couple of months before Mr and Mrs Talpa tied the knot. It then lay maturing in white oak casks for 25 years before being bottled at cask strength, just in time for our silver wedding anniversary. One of just 4500 bottles it very quickly became eel, but we still have the bottle to remind us of the happy day.