Glasgow Patter: on the bevvy...
lummed up A slang term for drunk: "The pair a them wis lummed up before they even got tae the reception." Lum, of course, is a Scots word for chimney, but apart from seeing someone as reeking with the fumes of alcohol the connection between drunkenness and chimneys escapes me. birlin A Scots word meaning spinning, often used locally to mean drunk: "Sumdy'll need tae see Gus up the road. The man's birlin." There are a couple of more elaborate forms of this, such as "His eyes are birlin" or "The eyes are birlin in his heid." © Michael Munro	Hard drinking must be the favourite local sport, apart from 'fitba' (ie. soccer), if we are to judge from the proportion of drink-related terms in the Patter... In fairness, it must be said that where the work is tough and the climate is rough, a tradition of hard drinking is not uncommon - Glasgow certainly met these criteria and there is no lack of incentives to imbibe the occasional 'wee goldie'.

Glasgow Patter: on the bevvy...

lummed up: A slang term for drunk: "The pair a them wis lummed up before they even got tae the reception."
Lum, of course, is a Scots word for chimney, but apart from seeing someone as reeking with the fumes of alcohol the connection between drunkenness and chimneys escapes me.
birlin: A Scots word meaning spinning, often used locally to mean drunk: "Sumdy'll need tae see Gus up the road. The man's birlin." There are a couple of more elaborate forms of this, such as "His eyes are birlin" or "The eyes are birlin in his heid."

Hard drinking must be the favourite local sport, apart from 'fitba' (ie. soccer), if we are to judge from the proportion of drink-related terms in the Patter... In fairness, it must be said that where the work is tough and the climate is rough, a tradition of hard drinking is not uncommon - Glasgow certainly met these criteria and there is no lack of incentives to imbibe the occasional 'wee goldie'.

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