Gransnet today....Just my opinion.

Having no idea why 'Jessie' I decided to Google it (I'm surprised that Elegran didn't beat me to it ) This is what I found:

Jessie : noun a weak or effeminate man.

A Scottish and northern English term of ridicule which has become widespread since the mid-1970s, partly due to the influence of comics such as the Scot, Billy Connolly. It is synonymous with nellie and big girl’s blouse.
There are two proposed derivations for the word; the first is simply a borrowing of the female name as a term of endearment, the second is a Biblical reference to ‘a rod out of the stem of Jesse’, giving rise to jokes on the subject of masturbation, etc.

OOOer, Missus.

Now I'm wondering about CISSY as in a big cissy = a mammy's boy.

And then there's the Jakey! Usually a hopeless drunkard.

"See that auld Jakey? He jist papped his empty superlager can ontae the verandah."

I wonder if it is because the man's name Jesse is so like the woman's name Jessie, so a big Jessie is a sweetie-wife (great soft lump of a man)? That is just a guess.

Am I right in thinking that means

"Go (away) and boil your head" Daphnebroom ?

I know what the term "Jessie" means I just wondered if anyone knew why Jessie?

It'll sink under its own weight soon, Daphne it is floundering already.

Isn't there a saying something like, with beer you're full before you're fu' but with whisky you're fu' before you're full? I may have got that wrong.

No grannyknot, it is fu' as in "full"!!

This actually belongs on another thread which must remain nameless,I leave you to guess which one, but suffice it to say I should not greet were it to slide gracefully beneath the waves ? of Active Conversations, but I have been so tempted to say
"Awa' an bile yer heid !"

I've remembered another expression that my MIL would use: to say someone is "foo" when they've had too much to drink. It would always make me laugh. Where does it come from? The word, I mean. "Fool" perhaps?

There`s a little café in Kintyre called Big Jessie`s. Apparently the owner used to be an office manager in Glasgow, when he told his workmates he was leaving to open a beachside café, they called him a Big Jessie!

Don't know about Jessie but it was used a lot in our neighbourhood to mean a big softie boy. My mother used to tut a lot about it as her name was Jessie

Oops and its 'pitting' not putting!

I see my phone has refused to believe I said 'mither' instead of mother! Its such a posh phone (or I should preview!)

When I was at school (hundreds of years ago), occasionally we would have readings from a Scots language bible. We loved it. It was so funny hearing our very posh English headmistress going on about 'the mother putting the wean in a barrie' at the Christmas service.

Thank you for the explanation harrigran sounds right.

Now, any idea about "Jessie"?

Reading your "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" Granny23 I noticed the word "neb".

That's a Geordie word too for nose. As in "keep yer neb oot"

I think Ganzee comes from Guernsey as in knitwear akin to a Jersey. The islands had traditional patterns for jumpers and the island name would become synonymous for the garment you were wearing.

My DGC have had a lady come to school in the run up to St Andrews Day, teaching them songs and poems in Scots, so we have had an outbreak of speaking Broad Scots/Doric among them and their friends. I particularly like this:

Heid n shodders, knaps n taes, knaps n taes
Heid n shodders, knaps n taes, knaps n taes
Een n lugs n mooth n neb
Heid n shodders, knaps n taes, knaps n taes

BTW the spell checker has turned every word of this RED.

Also where did the word "Ganzee" (sp?) come from?

Things often disappear into "Scotch Mist" here in Geordieland too trisher and we say "get outta me road" meaning "move" too gagagran.

Does anyone know where the term "Jessie" came from? As in "he's a reet Jessie" or "you look like a reet Jessie" why Jessie? Why not Beryl or Gilly?

All these colloquialisms have reminded me so much of my Yorkshire and Scottish ancestry - thanks everyone.

At our St Andrews Day fish supper last week we had paper napkins with various Scottish Graces printed on them, one of which was as follows -

Doon wi' yer heid
And up wi' yer paws,
And thank the Lord
For a guid pair o' jaws


This thread has come a long way from the OP and reflects what happens in 'real life' conversations. As such it's a great example of the ability of GNers to rise above acrimony and develop harmony

Never heard "flatter shoe" or "pavilion end"...

I quite like "lady garden" for..um..down there.

"Bowls from the pavilion end". That one was lost on me!

Oh yes 'takes the other bus', 'bats for the other side', or Jimmy Carr's euphemism for lesbians 'favours the flatter shoe'. Don't know where that leaves me though - I certainly favour the flatter shoe despite being happily married for 40 years.

Oh yes, the periods! Having the painters in, visiting aunties, on the rag, on the blob..... Or, thankfully, for me, just "on".

I have a gay friend. DD asked if friend had a boyfriend. I said, "no, she's on the other bus"....my euph for describing someone gay.

Took ages for the penny to drop with dd.

Christinefrance, yes, the euphemisms for periods. Once told by a friend that "her Aunty had come to stay". What!