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Gillie
Definitions
- 1 A surname.
- 1 A male attendant of a Scottish Highland chief. Scotland
"A Highland chief being as absolute in his patriarchal authority as any prince, had a corresponding number of officers attached to his person. […] Our officer of Engineers, so often quoted, has given us a distinct list of the domestic officers, who, […] belonged to the establishment of a Highland chief. These are, […] 4. Gillie-more, or sword-bearer, alluded to in the text. 5. Gillie-Casflue, who carried the chief, if on foot, over the fords. 6. Gillie-comstrain, who leads the chief's horse. 7. Gillie-Thrusha-narinsh, the baggage-man. 8. The Piper. 9. The piper's gillie, or attendant who carries the bagpipe."
- 2 A gill of an alcoholic drink. Scotland
"Fareweel, my rhyme-compoſing billie! / Your native ſoil was right ill-willie; / But may ye flouriſh like a lily, / Now bonilie! / I'll toaſt ye in my hindmoſt gillie, / Tho' owre the Sea!"
- 3 a shoe without a tongue and with decorative lacing up the instep wordnet
- 4 A fishing and hunting guide; a man or boy who attends to a person who is fishing or hunting, especially in Scotland. British, Ireland, Scotland
"Every deerstalker will bear witness to the eagerness of Highlanders in pursuit of their old favourite game, the dun deer; the mountaineer shews what he is when his eye kindles and his nostril dilates at the sight of a noble stag; when the gillie forgets his master in his keenness, and the southern lags behind; when it is "bellows to mend" and London dinners are remembered with regret."
- 5 a young male attendant on a Scottish Highlander chief wordnet
- 1 To be a gillie, a fishing or hunting guide, for (someone). intransitive
"I had taken bigger fish on the Alta, while fishing as Tony Pulitzer's guest on the Jöraholmen farm, but never under circumstances as bizarre as the day I found myself being ghillied by a girl."
Etymology
From Scottish Gaelic gille (“helper”), from Middle Irish gilla (“youth, young man; boy, male child; messenger, page, servant”), possibly borrowed from Old Norse gildr (“brawny, stout; of full worth”). Compare Irish giolla (“boy”).
From Scottish Gaelic gille (“helper”), from Middle Irish gilla (“youth, young man; boy, male child; messenger, page, servant”), possibly borrowed from Old Norse gildr (“brawny, stout; of full worth”). Compare Irish giolla (“boy”).
From gill (“drink measure for spirits”) + -ie; probably a nonce word coined by Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796) to maintain the rhyme in a poem entitled On a Scotch Bard Gone to the West Indies, first published in 1786: see the quotation.
See also for "gillie"
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