scoth

[imifumei.livejournal.com]

scoth Irish. (Rhymes with 'moth')

Actually, I must admit I am a bit confused by this word, so I am not so much informing as asking your collective opinion.

It's been commonly used among my family (who are of Irish descent) as a noun to mean 'a small piece of a greater whole that has been removed from the whole' in the same way as you might say bunch, shard, splinter, or chunk. Let me give a few examples.

"Cut me a scoth of those daisies from the front yard, would you?"

"I was hammering the nail in and a scoth of wood came up and hit me in the eye." (You should have been wearing protective goggles.)

"Tear off a scoth of that old towel to use as a dust rag."

So, basically a piece that has been removed from a bigger thing. But I recently realized that I had no clue of the etymology, so when I looked it up, I found two things. First, the Wiktionary.com entry which really didn't seem to agree with the usage with which I was familiar at all. Second, the Dictionary.com which, not only didn't agree, but even stated a different part of speech!

Wiktionary says:

noun:
1. flower
2. pick, choice
3. tuft, bunch
4. arrangement, style

I admit, it's not entirely off from what I know, but not exactly the same, either.

Dictionary.com says:

verb:
transitive. To clothe or cover up.


So, at this point, I am a bit stumped. Do I go with the way we've always used it as a valid definition or do I accept that it is simply a colloquialism specific to my family and say we've been using the word incorrectly all this time. Has anyone else ever heard it?

Comments

[quietchildae.livejournal.com]

My family, also Irish, uses scoth the same way. So maybe it is an Irish peculiarity?

[quietchildae.livejournal.com]

And by the same way, I mean to say the same way as your family.

[ersatz-read.livejournal.com]

I use scoche (scosche? rhymes with "cloche") for a similar meaning: a tiny bit. German/English family, but I don't think that's where the word comes from.

(For some reason I'm having trouble finding the word in a dictionary, even though I've heard others use it. I going to claim tiredness as an excuse.)

[imifumei.livejournal.com]

I think the word you mean is 'skosh,' which I use also in the same way you do. Skosh comes from the Japanese sukoshi which is pronounced almost the same as we say skosh. It's one of the very few loan words we have from Japanese.

I use scoth slightly differently, but it's interesting that the words are so similar being from such different backgrounds.

[rainbow-yarn.livejournal.com]

I've never heard it (Midwest American here). That really is puzzling, and in times like these, I say screw the dictionary and stick to your own way of using it; it sounds better, anyway.

[stagknight.livejournal.com]

To be slightly more unhelpful, the OED has it as a variant of 'scot' (not the form meaning a Scottish person):

1. A tax or tribute paid by a feudal tenant to his or her lord or ruler in proportion to ability to pay; a similar tax paid to a sheriff or bailiff. Cf. scat n.3 Now hist.

2.
a. Duty paid towards municipal expenses; a local or municipal tax. Freq. in collocation with lot n. 4a, esp. in scot and lot (earlier lot and scot): municipal taxes and charges paid by burgesses in proportion to their means, (in later use) sometimes used as a qualification for enfranchisement. Cf. scot and lot adj., shot and lot at shot n.1 24. Now hist.

b. spec. In Kent and Sussex: a tax levied on the householders of the marshes and levels for the maintenance of drainage systems, flood defences, etc. Now hist.

3. The charge or amount to be paid, esp. at a tavern or for entertainment; a person's share of such a payment; a bill. Chiefly (esp. in later use) in to pay (for) (one's) scot and variants: to pay (one's share of) a bill (freq. fig.).

[vodkanoodles.livejournal.com]

our Irish family always used it the way yours did - my Scottish family always rolled their eyes when it was used?

We ended up in Aus though so maybe it's local to the part of Ireland?

[xella.livejournal.com]

I've never seen scoth, but I have seen "swath (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/swath)" which fits your definition pretty well. It might be a case of using one word in speech and the other in text, since I'm pretty sure they sounds identical? I dunno.