Ram-beggur

[Jonathon Green]

Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>> Some Brits satirically refer to (usu. rural) Scots as
>> "sheep-shaggers," but I believe that even in our imaginative age
>> the object of the satire is always men, not women.
>>
>>
If you have the Scot-related cites, fair dos, but I would suggest that
it is generally used for any peasant, and specifically for the rural
Welsh (Wales being a land of many sheep) rather than the Scots. The
Australians and New Zealanders, two more major sheep countries, also use
it of each other. For your reading pleasure,  I commend you to the
eponymous novel _Sheepshagger_ (2001) by Niall Griffiths ('the Welsh
Irving Welsh' as reviewers like to apostrophise him), the story, and I
quote the blurb, of 'Ianto, the feral, inarticulate, inbred, noble
savage; haunter of mountains, killer of innocents'. Although I believe
he stops short of actual bestiality. I do agree, of course, with the
gender-specificity.


JG

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