Scots Word of the Week: Single end

By Dictionaries of the Scots Language

This is a term from the days of overcrowded tenement living. According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) a single end was, “a one-roomed house”. Note the use of house which is still used to mean a tenement dwelling of any size.

DSL’s current earliest attestation comes from John Wright’s Scenes of Scottish Life (1897): “‘A single en’, or one[room] apartment”.

However, further research has uncovered earlier examples, such as the following from the Dundee Courier in December 1868: “Not many evenings ago a stout, plump, healthy dame, ‘fair and forty’ at least, who rents a single end in a cottage...”.

The unsuitability of many of these homes did not escape the notice of the law, as reported in the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser in June 1888: “My attention has been drawn to a case in Broxburn where four families are living in a single end each”.

The term survived into the second half of the twentieth century as this advertisement from the Edinburgh Evening News in January 1967 shows: “Exchange large room and kitchen for single end, boxroom and w.c.”.

These properties are still referenced in newspapers like the Glasgow Evening Times. In May 2020, a reader shared that they, “lived for five years in a single-end in Cowcaddens, which [their] wee maw kept absolutely spotless”. Then, in June 2020, the paper shared an anecdote from one of the Queen’s visits to the city: “[Alice] Cullen insisted the Queen view an old single-end. Apparently, her Majesty reacted: ‘Is this all?’”.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

You can listen to ‘single end’ being read aloud here.