SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Hi everyone! Let’s start April off with a nice easy Scots word. There are a surprising amount of things today’s word means, but in the context of the snippet, the meaning I’m going for is obvious–well, I’m pretty confident that it is.

Here’s the snippet… (unedited first draft)

Elle dragged her hands through her hair in an effort to look somewhat presentable. As she was about to leave the bedroom, there was a knock at the front door. She hung back, waiting for Adam to shoo whoever it was away.

Ward. He must have just gotten back from Paris. If he was there, it must be over. She could set about rebuilding her life. She waited for the wave of relief to hit or at least her knees to buckle. But there was nothing, nothing but a dull ache in her chest.

“It’s not good,” Ward said, his voice muffled through the bedroom door.

The front door closed. Boots thudded across the wood floor, followed by Adam’s bare feet. No, no, no. What was Adam doing letting him in?

“What happened?” Adam’s voice was like steel, cold, hard.

“Could ask you the same. These look a bit sma to be yours.”

Elle squeezed her eyes shut as mortification burned her from the inside out. Let it be shoes. Please, let it be shoes and nothing else.

Running the Asset (Deniable Unit #1)

As I said above, I’m pretty sure that the snippet made it clear that sma means small in this context. If you want to see more meanings check out sma in the Dictionars o the Scots Leid.

That’s it for this week

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 sma 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!