Talk:agley

Careful on Scots vs. English

Please carefully note that “To a Mouse” is written in Scots, not English, and that this is a separate language, albeit similar. Accordingly, Robert Burns’s poem belongs in the Scots section, not the English section (unless “Baith snell an' keen!” and “An’ cranreuch cauld.” look like English to you), and English usages should clearly be from English sources, not Scotch.

The word is used in English – though primarily used in quotations or variants of the Burns line, it finds occasional independent use, as in the citations I have dug out. (The Wodehouse quote, while amusing, as ever, is not convincing because it is clearly an erudite reference to the poem, as a quotation, rather than a native word – he could as easily be quoting Greek, and often is.)

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 02:20, 11 December 2010 (UTC)

What Wodehouse quote? Deipnosophista (talk) 14:01, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Etymology

The etymology given is unsatisfactory, as if you follow the link you will be told that it means "A type of hydric soil, sticky, greenish-blue-grey in colour and low in oxygen", which is plainly wrong. Chambers gives Sc gley = squint, which is equally plainly right. Deipnosophista (talk) 13:59, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

• Well no, that's the English section. The Scots section was missing; it's there now though. Ƿidsiþ 14:15, 16 February 2013 (UTC)