Sawney
Britishnoun
-
a derogatory word for Scotsman
-
informal (also not capital) a fool
Etymology
Origin of Sawney
C18: a Scots variant of Sandy, short for Alexander
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A young man about Madison’s age named Sawney went with him.
From Literature
In 1769, Madison went off to what is now Princeton University, accompanied by an enslaved man named Sawney.
From Washington Post
He took the gibe and scowled at me--he spoke always like a Sawney, and could never pass for English; but in his pleasure at the discovery he had made he let the word pass.
From Project Gutenberg
In former years, when Sawney left his mountain home, his trouty lochs, and oaten bannocks, for the hot suns and debilitating climate of these “Isles of the West;” he did it for the sake alone of siller.
From Project Gutenberg
Sawney, Sawny, saw′ni, n. a Scotchman.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
