Heugh, heuch and some other variations are found in every part of Scotland. It is applied to a cliff face, a ravine, a narrow cleft, coal diggings, a quarry, a place that looks as if it has been hewn out. The Dictionary of the Scots Language (DOSL), which embraces the Dictionary of the Scots Tongue and the Scottish National Dictionary, says it is from Northern M.E. (beware when you see the letters M.E.) hogh, ‘a hill’, and O.E. hoh, ‘heel, projecting piece of land’. The dictionaries give many examples of its use.
Heugh is Norse, Högg, 1. ‘a gap, a ravine or cut like gap in a mountain’ ( fjal-högg); 2. ‘a blow or stroke’. We have högg-eyx ‘a hewing axe’; högg-járn, ‘hewing iron’ and many more examples from Cleasby and Vigfusson’s Icelandic Dictionary (C/V). Furthermore, the Normans introduced a word hogue, ‘a hill, mound’ which gave itself to place names in Normandy and after 1066 to other places.

Knowe, know, is a little round hill, top of a hill. DOSL (Dictionary of the Scots Language) says that M.E. Knol(l) from O.E. cnoll (Old English did not have a letter ‘K’)is the origin of this word. If they did not say that, they would have to say that it came from Old Norse, Knollr, Old Swedish, knol, Old Danish, knold, and then they would have to rewrite their dictionaries. The C.O.D. (Concise Oxford Dictionary) does list Old Norse Knollr, ‘a hill top’ in their definition and etymology of knoll. Why you will ask does the DOSL give these Anglic supposed origins? Their own origins are just after Victorian and Edwardian times, when the ASH (Anglo-Saxon Heresy) was propagated throughout the land. If you read the Rev. James Johnston’s, ‘Place-Names of Scotland’, first published in 1892, you will find it riddled with examples. He had a knowledge of Old Norse, was an intelligent man, but his education forced ASH on him-and me! A recent book, 1995, by David Dorward, (who sadly died just over a year ago) Scotland’s Place-Names, continues the heresy. Just one example. He knows that claims are made that the Isle of May, in the Firth of Forth, is from Old Norse má-ey, ‘sew mew isle’, (Rev. J. Johnston) but then says it is difficult to believe that the Norse penetrated so far south. ASH has stifled and falsified Scotland’s place names.

Burn, that very Scots word, that A.S.H. says comes from O.E. burna, ‘a stream’. We have Old Dutch, burna, Old Icelandic, brunnr, Gaelic búrn (which probably came from the Norse, since the Scots had intermarried with and settled with the Norse at an early stage), which points to an acceptable alternative to a totally unacceptable one.

There are many more ‘problem words’ which I have exposed in my books. The proper origins of Scots place names can not be completed without knowledge of the roots of our Scots tongue, which is from Norse Viking settlers in the 9th century or earlier.

One of Scotland’s national newspapers, The Herald, Glasgow, has started a weekly Scots Word of the Week series on a Saturday. It is a classic example of ASH. Their source for the ‘word’ is the DOSL.

The ASH Chronicle

The first article I saw on 16th. July, 2005, featured ‘provost’. Maggie Scott of Scottish Language Dictionaries writes the articles. www.dsl.ac.uk is the home of DOSL.
It was claimed in the article that ‘provost’came from medieval English (ME) and French, with both derived from an OE (Old English) profost and OF (Old French) provost via Latin propositus and praepositus, ‘a person placed in charge’.
I think ‘provost’ came from Old Norse prófastr, which in turn came from O.N.próf, ‘proof, evidence, inquest, examination; and prófa, ‘to try, put on trial’, with no Old English equivalent. (The COD gives modern ‘proof’ as coming from Old French proeve, from Latin probare. ). Exactly the function of an old Scots examining magistrate, a provost, and still today as by the provost marshals in the American and British forces. This word comes from the Latin, probare, ‘to try, put on trial’. This sense was not mentioned in the Herald article.
The word for 23rd. July was ‘fankle’. A claim was made, that this word came from Old English fon, which later developed in Scotland to fang ‘to catch, seize’ etc. Fang is listed in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (COD) as coming from the Old Norse , fang ‘to catch’. Flom, in his book on Scandinavian language in Old Scots states that this word fang, was loaned to OE from Old Norse, fang, fanga, ‘wrestling, holding, to catch, to hold etc. If you were in a wrestler’s hold, you would soon know what a ‘fankle’ was. Gaelic, fang, ‘sheep pen’, doubtless comes from the Norse.
30th July. Word was ‘wean’. Little attempt at etymology. An 18th c.sighting is claimed and offers ‘wee ane’ as the solution; with no attempt to show where ‘wee’ or ‘ane’ came from. Wean is from ON venja, ‘to wean or train a child or animal’.
6th. August. Word is ‘lum’, a chimney. It says it may be related to an early 16th.c. English word lumbe, ‘an opening in a roof, a skylight’. Old Welsh llumon, ‘chimney’ is also suggested, and a French and Latin source. Note that no attempt is made to suggest Norse or Gaelic, and yet we have Irish and Scots Gaelic, laom,’a blaze’ which MacBain’s Gaelic Dictionary states comes from the Old Norse ljómi, ‘ray’- also light, radiance, and gives us the Scots word leme, ‘light, radiance’ which the Concise Scots Dictionary says comes from Old English leoma! Professor Watson, in his’Celtic Place Names of Scotland’ says that the Gaelic‘lomond’ ‘a beacon’, is laoiminn in Loch Lomond, Ben Lomond, and that the base of this word is Gaelic laom, ‘blaze’,which as we have seen comes from the Old Norse. He also states that the Old Welsh word llumon meant ‘beacon, chimney’.
13th. August. Good Lord. No, not the word, but its provenance. It has come up with ‘blether’ with an Old Norse derivation-but does not give the ON word. It is blaðra, to bleat, talk nonsense, and n.blaðr , ‘nonsense’. It also mentions the Scots word ‘bard’ but no source. It is from the Gaelic bàrd ‘poet’, which reminds us of our national bard, Rabbie Burns, who used the word ‘blather’ in his poems.