Sawney

/ ˈsɔːnɪ /

noun

1. a derogatory word for Scotsman
2. informal.
   also not capital a fool

Word History and Origins

Origin of Sawney¹

C18: a Scots variant of Sandy, short for Alexander

Example Sentences

A young man about Madison’s age named Sawney went with him.

From Literature

But Sawney did not go as a student; he was enslaved.

From Literature

In 1769, Madison went off to what is now Princeton University, accompanied by an enslaved man named Sawney.

From Washington Post

He took the gibe and scowled at me--he spoke always like a Sawney, and could never pass for English; but in his pleasure at the discovery he had made he let the word pass.

From Project Gutenberg

In former years, when Sawney left his mountain home, his trouty lochs, and oaten bannocks, for the hot suns and debilitating climate of these “Isles of the West;” he did it for the sake alone of siller.

From Project Gutenberg