Question about Scottish

Gerald Cohen gcohen at UMR.EDU
Tue Feb 17 16:58:33 UTC 2004


     Would someone familiar with Scottish please let me know whether
"Gie it us" (Give it to us) can be said. Or must one use the
preposition "to": ("Gie it to us")?

    I'm interested in cant "geetus" (= money; first attestation: 1926;
variant spelling: "gheetus," which seems to indicate a hard g-).  The
etymology is unknown, but if Scottish "Gie it us" exists, perhaps
this is the basis of "geetus," with "it" here likely referring to
stolen money.

Gerald Cohen



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