Entertainment For Lively Minds
A question for the Scottish Massive
I have a question for my learned Scottish friends, one that has remained unanswered for 20 years now.
I went with my then girlfriend and another couple to the Floyd/Macca/Clapton/Uncle Tom Cobbly and all concert at Knebworth in 1990. We were sat happily watching Cliff and the Shadows when a couple of burly Scots blokes, clad head to toe in black leather, came amongst us and proceeded to harass the girls for a cigarette.
The exchange went something like this:
“Have you got a cigarette for a divvy?”
“Um, sorry, what?”
“A divvy! Have you got a cigarette for a divvy?”
Having purloined the ciggie, they proceeded to roll a joint. Now, my question is simply this: What is the correct patter in Scotland? Is it divvy or devvy, or davey and where does it come from?
These guys also had a unique method of creating space for themselves amongst us gentle picknicking folk. They stood up, got their old men out and starting pissing. They then sat down again, smoked their ‘divvy’ before heading off to create mayhem elsewhere. Perhaps you had the pleasure of their company as well.
You see David, that’s the sort of rich cultural exchange you have been missing by not attending festivals all these years.
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Shoddy.
I hope they at least gave you a puff on the blunt.Round our way,close to Liverpool a divvy is a term for the not so bright.Once had a police horse piss on our tent at Glasto and yes it did have a cu*t half way up it's back.Said cu*t didn't even apologise.Charming.
"Divvy Up"
"Divvy up" is used to mean "share out" or "distribute" - for example when paying individual band members at the end of a gig, fee £200, £50 van hire, put £50 in the band kitty, divvy up the rest : 5 musicians gives a £20 divvy. I don't know if this comes from dividend, or divide, but either of those would make sense as the root.
Used in the sense of your experience, that would suggest you should have been offered some of the joint.
Devil Woman hitmaker in drug fuelled leather clad sex orgy!
wait till the Daily Heil gets a hold of this.
Could the word have been...
"doobie"? I have heard this used back in the years of the great experimentation (last millennium). With the added élan and intrigue of the particular version of the Scottish accent this could end up sounding like "divvy" which I have never heard used in this context. I am acquainted with the other 2 options above.
I believe in current Scottish (central belt) parlance the universal "joint" and "spliff" remain culturally acceptable and I have heard my friends who still indulge using "doobie".
Sounds to me like they were doctors.
The doobie brothers
That's a reasonable suggestion, doobie that is, not the doctors line. But the word was definitely said with a hard v, like divveh, so I'm not convinced.
You've obviously
never been in Fraserburgh on a Friday night. Those bitter North Easterlies have helped create an accent/language which can bend most words to breaking point. In Aberdeenshire the Doric language is a thing of great joy and mystery. I would not be surprised if Doobie was transmogrified into divvy or even duvet! In fact, the word for 'do' is 'div' (possible similarity to the Geordie accent -'divn't dae that'). It's those north easterlies again! Did ah mention, bonny lad, that me granny on me faitha's side, came frae Chester-le-Street?
Right, it's getting out of hand now. Good luck with your quest.
Thanks, you make a good case
the honourable Californian makes a good case for the doobie. I was under the impression it was used only in the US in this context, and that in the UK a doobie was more prophylactic in nature. On the basis of this new evidence, I am prepared to accept that doobie could be made to sound like divvy.
"clad head to toe in black leather"
Like the Gimp in Pulp Fiction?!
No Merv
nothing like the gimp, but then you knew that