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
Is there not a bit of Sydney Smith's, wherein that divine, describing a Scottish rising against English tyranny, says that Sawney betook himself to the heather, and, having scratched himself with one hand, and cast up an account with the other, suddenly waxed furious, and drew his sword?
From Project Gutenberg
"And one of them's Soft Sawney, and another's Sprouts."
From Project Gutenberg
It's all very well for them," cried Mrs. Sawney; "but it's us wot 'as to suffer, us and the pore kids, bless 'em.
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.
