dreich

English

Alternative forms

• dree, dreigh

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots dreich, from Middle English dregh.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [dɹiːx]

Adjective

dreich (comparative dreicher, superlative dreichest)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland) Bleak, miserable, dismal, cheerless, dreary.
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, “A Scots Quair”, in Sunset Song, Polygon, published 2006, page 243:

     It looked a dreich, cold place as you rode by at night, near as lonesome as the old Mill was, and not near as handy.

   • 1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 3:

     There are many other species of Scottish station, from geranium-hung coastal termini to dreich places in the Black Country, but a concluding note must be reached, and it shall concern Glasgow.

   • 2002 November 14, “Glasgow's ambassadors receive a dreich welcome in Havana”, in The Scotsman:

   • 2004, Susan Hill, The Various Haunts of Men, published 2004, page 4:

     but driving home at this dreich hour and at the end of a difficult shift, she found the ectoplasmic fog unnerving

   • 2020, Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain, page 336:

     On dreich days Shuggie would take Agnes's wedding album and hide at the foot of her bed poring over the photos of his father.

Related terms

• dree

Anagrams

• chider, herdic, riched

Irish

Noun

dreich f sg

1. dative singular of dreach (“front”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
dreich	dhreich	ndreich
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “dreich”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English dregh, from Old English ġedrēog, *drēog, from Proto-West Germanic *dreug, from Proto-Germanic *dreugaz. Possibly influenced by Brythonic, e.g. Welsh drycin (“bad weather”) < drwg (“bad”) +‎ hin (“weather”).

Distantly cognate with English drudge, dree, and German trügen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /driːx/, /driːç/

Adjective

dreich (comparative mair dreich, superlative maist dreich)

1. persistent, continuous, relentless
2. slow, tardy
3. dismal, dowie, dreary, bleak
   • 2000, Matthew Fitt, But n Ben A-Go-Go, Luath, published 2000, page 132:

     The dreich inhuman blue on Nadia's lang-wheesht thocht-screen fizzed intae life.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. tedious, wearisome, drawn-out
5. reluctant, tight-fisted, driving a hard bargain

Derived terms

• dreichly
• deid dreich
• dreich in the draw