Sawney (sometimes Sandie/y, or Sanders, or Sannock) was an English nickname for a

Scotsman The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded t ...

, now obsolete, and playing much the same linguistic role that " Jock" does now. The name is a Lowland Scots

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

of the favourite Scottish first name Alexander (also Alasdair in Scottish Gaelic form, anglicised into Alistair) from the last two syllables. The English commonly abbreviate the first two syllables into "Alec". From the days after the accession of James VI to the English throne under the title of James I, to the time of George III and the

Bute Bute or BUTE may refer to: People * Marquess of Bute, a title in the Peerage of Great Britain; includes lists of baronets, earls and marquesses of Bute * Lord of Bute, a title in medieval Scotland, including a list of lords * Lucian Bute (born ...

administration, when Scotsmen were exceedingly unpopular and Dr.

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

- the great Scotophobe, and son of a Scottish bookseller at Lichfield - thought it prudent to disguise his origin, and overdid his prudence by maligning his father's countrymen, it was customary to designate a Scotsman a "Sawney". This vulgar epithet, however, was dying out fast by the 1880s, and was obsolete by the 20th century. Sawney was a common figure of fun in English cartoons. A particularly stereotypical example, ''Sawney in the Bog House'', shows a stereotypical Scottish Highlander using a communal bench toilet by sticking one of his legs down each of the holes. This was originally published in London in June 1745, just over a month before

Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...

landed in Scotland to begin the Jacobite rising of 1745. In this version Sawney's excreta emerge from below his kilt and flow across the bench. The idea was revived in a different and slightly more decorous version of 1779, which is attributed to the young James Gillray. An inscription reads: :'Tis a bra' bonny seat, o' my saul, Sawney cries, :I never beheld sic before with me Eyes, :Such a place in aw' Scotland I never could meet, :For the High and the Low ease themselves in the Street.''Sawney in the bog-house''
British Museum, 1779 It has also been suggested that the Galloway cannibal Sawney Bean may have been a fabrication to emphasise the alleged savagery of the Scots. Sometimes also used in the term "Sawney Ha'peth", meaning "Scots halfpennyworth" implying "Scottish fool". At the time of the political union of Scotland and England in 1707, the Pound Scots was worth 1/12 of the

Pound Sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

, thus a "Scots halfpennyworth" implies worthlessness. The word "sawney" survives in the current

Official Scrabble Players Dictionary The ''Official Scrabble Players Dictionary'' or OSPD is a dictionary developed for use in the game Scrabble, by speakers of American and Canadian English. History Background and creation The ''Official Scrabble Players Dictionary'' was first ...

(OSPD), which validates the word in Scrabble tournament play, and is defined as "a foolish person".

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The main text of this article is derived from: * MacKay, Charles – ''A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch'' (1888) With additions from: * Pittock, Murray – ''Inventing and Resisting Britain: Cultural Identities in Britain and Ireland, 1685-1789'' National personifications Anti-British sentiment Stereotypes of white people

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References

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