Word o the Week Borra I draw your attention to the spelling, “borra”. This should indicate to you that there is not a connection with the Volkswagen saloon, the Bora, itself deriving its name from an Adriatic wind. Nor is there a link to Bora Bora, the resort island in the Leeward group, part of the Society Islands in the Pacific Ocean. No, the Ulster Scots “borra” has its own distinct meaning. There is a shared meaning with the Standard English “borrow” (something borra’ed, something blue; beg, borra or stale) although one particular use, in relation to days in the calendar, is possibly a hangover from Elizabethan English. The last three days of March, known to some as the “borra’in days”, because they are allegedly boora’ed frae April (part of the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar) are reputed to be especially stormy although given our prevailing climate, much of March and April are inclement. My favourite summary of our climate is “nine months o winter and three months o bad weather”. The borra most familiar to an Ulster Scots speaker is what is known in Standard English as a wheelbarrow. The one in most common usage in an agricultural context would be the box borra. Older versions were wooden in construction but these were superseded by metal models. The cleaning of the byre required many fills of the borra being wheeled to the midden, often across a narrow plank. On occasion, this pathway would prove too precarious and the unlucky would step on (or in) the midden in an attempt to regain their balance. The very unlucky might land in the midden tae their oxters. Or worse. In the moss, sometimes called the boag, a wooden peat-borra was an invaluable aid to transporting peats, dry or wet, depending on the time of year and the state of the peats themselves. They start out wet when cut and are dried over the summer. The peat-borra is long and flat and capable of carrying a brave load o peat. My cousin recently got rid of his somewhat ramshackle car and replaced it with something more up-to-date. He announced it on Facebook thus “The flyin borra has gone. Sold it”. I knew what he meant. Now you know what he meant.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:23:40 +0000
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