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

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.

PIRN: A small bobbin used to hold sewing cotton or the like, a reel of cotton.

The 2 cotton reels date to before the First World War. The larger one was made by J. Dewhurst and Sons, whose mill was in Skipton, Yorkshire, and the smaller one by J & P Coates of Paisley, Scotland. The hank of red silk belonged to my mother who was a silk spinner before and during the Second World War: from silk stockings to parachutes!

I won't be able to blip for the next few days. When service recommences it will be with Q for ....