A lexicon of Terms

One thing that I’ve discovered over here is that there are words that we Canadians use that have a very different meaning. I thought I’d take a minute and go through some of these words so that, should any of you come and visit, that you avoid the embarrassment of committing a social faux pas.

Pants- Canadians would call these any garment to cover your legs. So, a pair of jeans could be a pair of pants, or perhaps dress pants when you go to work, or even referee pants to go over my equipment.

Pants- For Scots, pants are underwear. So, you can imagine the confusion that can erupt when I say something like ‘My pants are wet!’. To the Scots it sounds like I just had an accident and couldn’t make the bathroom…put to Canadians it is simply me telling anyone who’ll listen that my pants are wet. Replace pants with the word trousers.


Bangs- In Canada girls often have bangs, the hair that’s in front and covers a bit of the forehead.

Bangs- this word doesn’t exist in Scotland…they call it Fringe. Deal with it.


Chips- In Canada we call potato chips made by Lays or Humpty Dumpty chips but this is a huge point of contention for Scots. The Scots insist on calling potato chips Crisps. Yes, yes, I know…it sounds dumb…but that’s term. If you call them Chips everyone gets all confused. To these people Chip refer to what we call Fries. So…if you want potato chips you really want Crisps , and if you want fries you want Chips.

While I’m on the topic of Crisps…they have the weirdest flavours ever over here. They have regular and Salt and Vinegar, and instead of sour Cream and onion they have Cheese and onion. All of these are relatively normal. But then they get weird. Prawn Cocktail (think Shrimp), or how about Minted Lamb flavoured? No? Well try the collection of Crisps made by McCoy…it’s a meat flavoured pack, so BBQ chicken, Flame Charbroiled steak, and Ham and Mustard. Weird!! Check out the photo. hmmm...Meaty!!

Then we move on to Chips. Now, we all know that poutine is a classic Canadian dish. Fries smothered in Gravy with Cheese curds…very nice…I have to admit. However, they don’t like the idea of the gravy…over here you get Chips and cheese, but with Curry sauce. Weirdest thing ever. It tastes ok…not one of my favourites, but reasonable. Just really weird.


Trunk- If you want to open the Trunk of the car, you’d better call it the Boot or else no one understands you.


Chuffed: This is a term I only recently encountered. It’s used to describe the feeling of being really happy. So, in a sentence you get ‘ I’m really Chuffed that Celtic won the football match!’. Got it ? Good.


Football- Ok…we all know that Football in Europe mean s Soccer. But don’t call it soccer. You’ll get punched out.


NED’s- You need to avoid people who are called NED’s. It’s an acronym for Non-Educated Delinquents and basically describes hooligans. You might also see them described as being RAGE…don’t ask why…that’s the deal. Apparently that’s a term from the East Coast (aka Edinburgh). They tend to wear track suits, running shoes, have short hair cuts, and carry samurai swords.


A Wee Pouff- This is an expression that includes a couple of Scottish terms. Wee…well that means little. Simple enough. A pouff is a someone timid, perhaps something akin to a coward.

Nae bother: This sounds like something that a horse might say, but let me assure you the Scots use the word Nae lots. It’s really the word ‘No’ or ‘Not’…it depends on the situation. However, if you aren’t expecting it you will be confused.

Toilet- The term toilet refers to a couple of things. Firstly, it refers directly to the toilet itself, just like back home. However, it also has the double meaning of referring to the room where the toilet is found. We might call this room the bathroom, or restroom depending on what surroundings you are in. A little deceiving, I know, but key to know.

Wanker- This is a terms you simply don’t want to be called. It’s very rude. Sometimes it’s used in the sense of red neck…but the meaning is variable depending on what you need. And, while in Scotland you REALLY don’t want to be called an English wanker. They HATE the English…so it’s really insulting.


That seems to be the bulk of the main ones. I’m sure I will add to the lexicon as we go, but this should get you started.

That’s all from Scotland,

Take care,

Bruce