Editors of the
Dictionaries of the Scots Language are kindly supplying us with a Scots word of the month. This month, the word is:
CANTRIP
A spell, charm or trick
The earliest instances of cantrip in the
Dictionaries of the Scots Language are quoted from John Stuart (ed.),
The Miscellany of the Spalding Club (1597), as in: 'Thy vytchcraft, cantrepis, and inchantment', placing cantrips firmly in the realm of magic.
Early examples indicate magic of the malevolent or harmful kind, as in this 1649 extract from the
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: 'She had wronged Thomas Webster… by casting ane cantrop before his doore'.
You had to take care when casting cantrips as the results could be worse than you bargained for. In such circumstances, drastic remedies were sometimes required, as shown by this example from the
Edinburgh Magazine (1820): 'The career of their misfortunes was only checked by their... taking out, and burning the heart of one of the horses that had died through their mischievous cantrips'.
Cantrip-time was the season for practising the magical arts, so that there was a greater risk than usual of falling victim to them. There is reference in
Blackwood's Magazine (1820) to the need for protection at this time: 'I mauna cast thee awa on the corse o' an auld carline [witch], but keep thee cozie against cantrip-time'.
But cantrips could be used for beneficial purposes as well, as in this quote from
Galloway Gossip by Robert De Bruce Trotter (1901): 'There use't tae be lots o' cantraips cairry't on for curin orra bits o' troubles an complents'.
In more recent times, a cantrip came also to mean a trick or piece of mischief. In James Thomson's
Recollections of a Speyside Parish (1887), we read that: 'He's nae the first ane that she's played her cantrips wi', and in Neil Munro's
The Daft Days (1907), that: '… she'll skin me alive for letting you play such cantrips with her candles'.
Scots Word of the Month is written by editors of the Dictionaries of the Scots Language. You can sponsor a word from this national archive as a special gift for a loved one or friend. More information about word sponsorship can be found here.
