''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, an ...

-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 carr ...

''-air'' or ''-adair'' * a derivation from the Scots

adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

''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, ...

''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 List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, 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

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 Glasgo ...

. 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 ...

References

Pejorative terms for European people Scottish culture Stereotypes of rural people {{scotland-stub

Derivation

Humour

See also

References