Dingle-dousie is Scots for a stick or piece of peat lit at one end and waved quickly to make an arc of light, a children’s plaything something like a sparkler. The Scots National Dictionary also records a related sense, an active, bustling person. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Scots “Dingle-Dousie” Means a Lit Stick Waved to Make an Arc of Light”
Here’s a term you didn’t know you needed, dingle doozy.
Oh no, is that naughty?
Can we say that?
No, yes, yes, we absolutely can.
And you can find it in the Scots National Dictionary.
Dingle doozy, that’s dingle like you might expect it to be spelled, hyphen d-o-u-s-i-e.
And it means a stick or peat ignited at one end and waved rapidly so as to form a light, used as a plaything by children.
Oh, so kind of like a sparkler at Fourth of July.
Yeah, or a glow stick if you’re in a disco or something.
It also refers, I think by extension, to an active, bustling person.
A dingle doozy.
A dingle doozy.
But yeah, next Fourth of July, you know what to call that.
Sure, yeah, when you’re trying to quickly spell out words.
Yeah, yeah.
Counting on it to last on their retina until the word is spelled.
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