Scots Word for February
Souter
A souter is a shoemaker and several usages in the Dictionary of the Scots Language indicate that cobbling was not a very profitable trade; Souter's brandy was another name for buttermilk and a souter's clod was a roll or small loaf of coarse bread.
The word Souter is also used to refer to native of Selkirk, which was once noted for its manufacture of light shoes and, less commonly, to a native of Forfar which was also known for shoe manufacture.
It may have been a hard life with little profit, but the souters seem to have been content with their lit as we see from the Souters' Grace, quoted by W. Gregor in Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland (1881):
"What are we before thee, O King Crispin? Naething bit a parcel o' easy ozy sooter bodies, nae worth one old shoe to mend another. Yet thou hast given us leather to yark, and leather to bark, oot-seam awls, and in-seam awls, pincers and petrie-balls, lumps o' creesch and balls o' rosit, and batter in a cappie. Amen."
The Scots column is written by Christine Robinson. You can contact her with any questions.
