Scots Word for June
Pech
William Dunbar (1500) describes, 'yung monkis... Full faderlyk with pechis and pantis'. The onomatopoeic phrase 'hechin and pechin' certainly suggests considerable respiratory distress and it is not hard to make the figurative connection to struggle in more general sense, so that if something is accomplished with a great effort, you might say you 'got ower it wi a pech'. In fact anything in life that is a bit of a trauchle might be described as 'a sair pech'.
In Charles Murray's poem Jeames, we find an account of Jeames' widow, now herself deceased and reluctant to let him rest in peace:
Ere she was pechin up the gowden stair
An fleechin Peter till he let her past.'
Pechin landed Joke Mynto in trouble at Selkirk Burgh Court in 1539 when 'James Dounguell tuk to preif that Joke Mynto peichit in his faice and Jok Michelhill raif his clathis'.
More positively, in a collection of poems dating from before 1572, a pech can express satisfaction: 'He gaif ane greit pech lyke ane weill fed stirk' and in this sense, pech can be found in the phrase 'pech and sech' (sigh).
A pecher is a wheezy or asthmatic cough. In W. Kemps' Cornkisters (1950) we hear, 'Tam chokit on a tattie, turned the colour o' a ghost; Syne he got a pecher and an extraordinar' hoast'.
So, whatever you do, stop afore you rin oot o pech.
The Scots column is written by Christine Robinson. You can contact her with any questions. Visit the Dictionary of the Scots Language website to search for more information on pech.
