Teuchter

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Teuchter (pronounced chew-ch-ter or chu-ch-ter with the middle 'ch' sounding as the Scottish word loch) is a Lowland Scots word used mainly for Northern, Highland Scots, or Doric speaking Scots, although sometimes to any rural Scots by urban Scots. In Glasgow, it can often be used to refer to a person from another part of Scotland if the latter carries a distinctive accent. Like most such cultural epithets, it is often offensive, but is sometimes seen as amusing by the speaker.

[edit] Derivation

The word has an unclear origin. The most commonly stated one is that it is derived from the Lowland Scots word teuch (tough) (in Gaelic tiugh). In some dialects, this is also used for mangy or stringy animals, or fowl.

One folk etymology/urban myth,is that during the First World War, many members of the Highland regiments were pipers. A book of sheet music for the pipes is called a "tutor", and when pronounced with the aspiration of their Gaelic accents, this sounds like "teuchter".

Other less likely derivations include tuathanach, meaning 'farmer' in Gaelic, and placenames such as Deuchar, Teuchar etc. Enthusiastic vocalization during dancing to traditional music, producing a 'heuch' sound like "Teuch! Teuch!" is also a possibility.

[edit] Humour

Like other rural stereotypes, teuchters commonly feature in jokes (a teuchter visiting the city might marvel at a bus as "a hoose wi wheels") though such stories often end with the apparently naive teuchter triumphing through hidden wiliness.

The archetypal cartoon teuchter is the cartoon character Angus Og, created by Ewan Bain.

A teuchter is the hero of Bill Hill's The Portree Kid [1], which parodies the song Ghost Riders in the Sky as "The teuchter that cam frae Skye".