Home» Word of the Month» May 2008

Scots word for May

Mey

Hawthorn blossom
The fifth month of the year can be warm and sunny, but it can also be treacherous; sunny days can rapidly cloud over and give way to the coo-quake (cow-quake), a short spell of chilly weather occurring in May: Come it aire, come it late, in May comes the cowquake (David Fergusson Scottish Proverbs 1598).

This cold snap is not to be confused with the Gab o Mey another cold spell in May: The weather doesn't really turn until after the Gab o' May, the last snow storm that sweeps across the hills in the middle of May killing newborn lambs, nesting birds and the first spring flowers; a Calvinistic reminder that we shouldn't relax until the end of May (Sunday Herald 28 March 1999).

So it makes sense to heed the well-known saying Ne'er cast a cloot till Mey be oot (Do not discard any piece of clothing until May is out). Here, Mey does not refer to the month, but to the blossom of the hawthorn which usually flowers towards the end of May. Before that, however, the flower and leaf buds of the hawthorn can provide a light snack and are sometimes known as bread-and-cheese or cheese-an-breid.

Everybody is wary on the first of April of being made an April Fool but fewer people have heard of a May-gosling, a person who has been caught by similar pranks once associated with the first of May.

The mey puddock is a frog in the month of May, when the mating season is over and frogs tend to keep silent. This gives rise to the simile as mim as a Mey puddock used to describe a person who is very demure and staid in behaviour.