[1] The word's earliest appearance in English is in 15th century Scotland with the meaning "vagabond minstrel". The modern literary meaning, which began in the 17th century, is heavily influenced by the presence of the word in ancient Greek (bardos) and ancient Latin (bardus) writings (e.g. used by the poet Lucan, 1st century AD), which in turn took the word from the Gaulish language.
[1] a type of servant, now usually somebody in charge of fishing and rivers, and also ghillie suit used as a form of camouflage, from gille[ˈkʲiʎə], boy or servant.
[1] From plaide[ˈpʰl̪ˠatʲə], blanket. Alternatively a Lowland Scots loanword [1], from the past participle of ply, to fold, giving plied then plaid after the Scots pronunciation.
[1] Short form of whiskybae, from uisge-beatha[ɯʃkʲəˈpɛhə], water of life.
Words of Scottish or Irish Gaelic origin
The following words are of Goidelic origin but it cannot be ascertained whether the source language was Old Irish or one of the modern Goidelic languages.
[1] An accent, Irish, or Scottish Gaelic bròg[pɾɔːk], shoe (of a particular kind worn by Irish and Gaelic peasants), Old Irish bróc, from Norse brókr[2]
Hubbub
[1][3] Irish, or Scottish Gaelic ubub[ˈupup], an exclamation of disapproval.
Shanty
Irish or Scottish Gaelic sean taigh[ʃɛnˈtʰɤj], an old house
Smidgen
Irish or Scottish Gaelic smidean[ˈs̪mitʲan], a very small bit (connected to Irish smidirín, smithereen), from smid, syllable or a small bit.[citation needed]
[1] Irish, or Scottish Gaelic srath[s̪t̪ɾah], a wide valley.
Gaelic words mostly used in Lowland Scots
Because of the wide overlap of Scottish English and Lowland Scots, it can be difficult to ascertain if a word should be considered Lowland Scots or Scottish English. These words tend to be more closely associated with Lowland Scots but can occur in Scottish English too.
Airt
[1] Point of the compass, from àird[aːrˠtʲ], a point.
[8] Head of a clan, from toiseach[ˈt̪ʰɔʃəx], beginning, front.
Place-name terminology
There are numerous additional place-name elements in Scotland which are derived from Gaelic, but the majority of these have not entered the English or Scots language as productive nouns and often remain opaque to the average Scot. A few examples of such elements are: