''Teuchter'' (
) is a
Lowland Scots word commonly used to describe a
Scottish Highlander, in particular a
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
-speaking Highlander.
Like most such cultural epithets, it can be seen as offensive, but is often seen as amusing by the speaker. The term is contemptuous, essentially describing someone seen to be uncouth and rural.
[
]
Derivation
The word also shows up as ''cheuchter, tschooktir, chuchter, teuchtar, chookter'' but has no universally accepted orthography. From relative obscurity, it gained currency around 1910.[
There are three main theories on the etymology of the word:
* a purely Gaelic derivation from ''tuath'' "peasantry, tenantry" or ''deoch'' "drink" (borrowed into Scots as ''teuch'') plus an agent-forming ]suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
''-air'' or ''-adair''[
* a derivation from the Scots ]adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
''teuch'' "physically or mentally strong, tough" plus a suffix[
* a derivation from the Scots ]noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
''teuchit/teuchat'' "lapwing
Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A gro ...
"[
One ]folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
/urban myth
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
is that during the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, 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 pre-aspiration of Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
accents when speaking English, this sounds like "teuchter".
Humour
Like other rural stereotypes, teuchters commonly feature in jokes (Billy Connolly
Sir William Connolly (born 24 November 1942) is a Scottish actor, retired comedian, artist, writer, musician, and presenter. He is sometimes known, especially in his homeland, by the Scots nickname the Big Yin ("the Big One"). Known for his ...
has performed and recorded a sketch where a teuchter visiting the city marvels 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 Ewen Bain
Ewen Bain (23 June 1925 – 18 December 1989) was a Scottish
Highlander
cartoonist, whose most notable creation was the '' Angus Og'' comic strip, a stereotypical depiction of the quintessential 20th century Highlander, which ran in the Glasgow ...
.
A teuchter is the hero of Scottish musician Bill Hill's ''The Portree Kid'', which parodies the song ''Ghost Riders in the Sky'' as "The teuchter that cam frae Skye
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated b ...
".
See also
* Culchie
Culchie is a pejorative term in Hiberno-English for someone from rural Ireland. The term usually has a pejorative meaning directed by urban Irish against rural Irish, but since the late 20th century, the term has also been reclaimed by some who are ...
* Gaels
The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na GÃ idheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic langu ...
* Russian stereotyping of rural people via Chukchi jokes
* Taig
Taig, and (primarily formerly) also Teague, are anglicisations of the Irish-language male given name ''Tadhg'', used as ethnic slurs for a stage Irishman. ''Taig'' in Northern Ireland is most commonly used as a derogatory term by loyalists to re ...
* Yokel
Yokel is one of several derogatory terms referring to the stereotype of unsophisticated country people. The term is of uncertain etymology and is only attributed from the early 19th century.
Yokels are depicted as straightforward, simple, naà ...
References
Pejorative terms for European people
Scottish culture
Stereotypes of rural people
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