SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Welcome to the revamped Things in Scots series. In this incarnation of TiS, I’m sharing the Scots language found in my upcoming romantic suspense novel, Running the Asset.

Let’s dive right in and get to this week’s word–well, it’s a phrase in the snippet.

Here’s the snippet… (unedited first draft)

He gripped Elle’s chin, forcing her to look up at him. “The morra’s morn, you’re going to get that drive for me, and then I suggest you get the fuck out of Marseille.”

Incensed eyes pinned him. “No.”

A lesser man would have withered under the waves of anger coming off her, but Adam remained unmoved. So she hated him; it was no skin off his nose. He wasn’t too fond of her either. “No?”

“No.”

“Fine. Let’s see how you feel in the morning.” He tugged at her restraints, then gave her the smile he’d been told would get him killed one day. “Don’t go anywhere, doll.” He left her tied to the chair as he walked out of her apartment.

Running the Asset (Deniable Unit #1)

Let’s break the phrase down. Morra is more common in the Central dialect of Scots, and it means tomorrow–it’s usually said as the morra. Morn means morning. Put it all together, and we get the morra’s morn meaning tomorrow morning.

[FYI: If Adam spoke another dialect of Scots, say North East/The Doric, he’d have said the/e morn’s morn to mean the same thing.]

And that’s it

I hope you enjoyed this post. I’d love to hear your comments on how easy or difficult it was to get the gist of the morra’s morn as it appeared in the quote. 

If you find yourself inspired by the Scots words I share, add the tag #TiS or #ThingsinScots to your writing/art/photo post and drop your link in the comments.

If you want to see more Scots posts, check out the original series, Things in Scots.

Thanks for reading. Take care, and I hope to see you next week for more Scots on Manuscript Mondays!