Riddy appears under reid in Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is defined as having “a blushing face from embarrassment; the cause of such embarrassment”. A definition of riddy given by Michael Munro in The Patter (1985) provides a perfect example too: “A red face caused by embarrassment. Also something that is a source of embarrassment: ‘There Ah’m staunin no knowin the fly’s open - what a riddy!’”.
A later example from the Glasgow Evening Times of October 2017 records: “This guy ‘gees us aww a riddy’ by appearing in Google maps with his taps aff”. (Referring to the image that came up on a street-view search for Merkland Street.)
And here’s an all-too familiar scenario from Ely Percy’s Duck Feet (2021): “He wis aboot tae walk away again when Charlene said ‘Ha ha Kirsty’s got a pure riddy ah ha Kirsty fancies Mister Anderson’.”
An unusual take on the staging of Macbeth causes embarrassment in Thomas Clark’s The Boggin Beginnin (2021): “Violet took a riddie. ‘Whit, ye mean they were aw up there on stage in the pure scud?’ ‘Anely for a meenit,’ Klaus said smilin’. ‘The polis came and shut the hale thing doon.’”
And finally, we probably all remember lockdown episodes of this kind from the Courier of February 2021: “In the now great tradition of ‘important’ interviewees getting a richt ridder from their under-dressed spouses, embarrassing bookshelf contents, children and pets during Zoom or other video-type chats with pundits, Michael Gove was apparently thoroughly upstaged by his cat the other day…”.
Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here