Perhaps you’re one of our site visitors from the United States, Canada or even Australia? Wherever you’re from, if you’re unfamiliar with the Scots term ‘shoogle’, here’s a wee bit of background on how the Wee Shoogle came to be.
Definitions
Wee
- [Adjective] – Small in size, measure, quantity or degree.
- [Synonyms] – little, teensy, weeny, itsy-bitsy, ickle.
- [Origin] – came into existence in the middle of the 15th century, derived from the Old English waeg describing the weight of an object, a word also used to refer to a quantity or an amount. Littel wei was also commonly used in this period, meaning ‘a little thing or little amount’.
- [Verb] – to shake, wobble, move from side to side.
- [Synonyms] – shake, jiggle, wiggle, shimmy.
- [Origin] – from dialectal shog, shug; apparently related to German schaukeln to shake.
How to say it in Scots (from The Times)
‘Shoogle’ conjures up a number of familiar images. The gentle rock in the cradle of your arm that puts a bairn to sleep is a wee shoogle. It’s also the term that best describes the juddering and jerking motion of a tram. It can even be used figuratively as in the People’s Journal of January 7, 1961: “The girny wife’s pride got a shoogle.”
And thus, Wee Shoogle, the mouse mover was aptly named. A perfect description of the shoogly motion of your hand moving your mouse to save the pesky screensaver from kicking in.
Here’s Some Things you can Shoogle
You could try shaking up your life, or indeed, giving your life a wee shoogle.
When asking someone to move along to make room for you. For example, on the bus or at the cinema, someone can shoogle over to allow you to sit down.
A wobbly tooth can be described as being shoogly.
In the literal sense, a peg on a wall that has come loose is known as a shoogly peg. But since the 1980s it can refer to job insecurity, or even a weak grip on life: “Yer coat’s on a shoogly peg.”
As well as keeping your screen active, keep your mind active with a gentle shoogle from it’s post-lunch slumber.
Music Celebrities who like to Shoogle
- Taylor Swift was known to ‘Shoogle it off’. She once famously sang: “Baby, I’m just gonna shoogle, shoogle, shoogle, shoogle, shoogle. I shoogle it off, I shoogle it off”
- KC & The Sunshine band with their disco epic ‘Shoogle Your Booty’
- The 80s pop star Shooglin’ Stevens.
- Back in the 50s, Bill Haley and his Comets once famously sang “Shoogle, Rattle, & Roll” As did the hip-swiveling, leg shoogling, King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley.
- Groove Armada once had a hit ‘I See You Baby’ …shooglin’ that ass
- And who remembers ‘2 In A Room’ from the 90s who liked to ‘Shoogle It, Just a Little Bit’?
