gillie

Meanings

Noun

• A male attendant of a Scottish Highland chief.
• A fishing and hunting guide; a man or boy who attends to a person who is fishing or hunting, especially in Scotland.
• A gill of an alcoholic drink.

Verb

• To be a gillie, a fishing or hunting guide, for (someone).

Origin

• From Scottish Gaelic gille ("helper"), from Middle Irish gilla ("youth, young man; boy, male child; messenger, page, servant"), possibly borrowed from Old Norse gildr ("brawny, stout; of full worth"). Compare Irish giolla ("boy").
• From gill + -ie; probably a nonce word coined by Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796) to maintain the rhyme in a poem entitled On a Scotch Bard Gone to the West Indies, first published in 1786: see the quotation.