Careful Words

scotch (n.)

scotch (v.)

scotch (adj.)

  The whole [Scotch] nation hitherto has been void of wit and humour, and even incapable of relishing it.

Horace Walpole (1717-1797): Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1778.

  It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.

Sydney Smith (1769-1845): Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 15.