More Besom Fun

My friend Anna Korn, one of the late Gwydion Penderwen's five widows, currently married to Don Frew, recently visited Scotland where she found a gift for me. It's a coaster printed with the Scottish definition of "besom," to wit:

besom (biz-um) bisom Dialect, chiefly Scot. ~n. 1. obstreperous girl or woman; female upstart [as in “Dinnae pou’ yer brither’s hair, ya wee besom”]. 2. woman of low moral standing; a hussy (“Thon yin’s a right mucky besom”). 3. broomstick or scourge; any broom made from loose twigs. 4. a comet or its tail.

Suits me fine.

Here's a source for traditional besoms.

P.S. This program has bugs; it refuses to return the font to normal size and it insists on italicizing the block quote. All this in spite of the fact that the html code is correct and it shows correctly on my screen. Curses!