Eat up, ye鈥檙e at yer aunties

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en">     <html class="no-js">  <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1"> <meta property="cache-method" content="CMemCache"/> <meta name="slc-build" content="2.02"> <meta property="fb:pages" content="153355385259"/> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/overide.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8/jquery.min.js"></script> <title>Eat up, ye鈥檙e at yer aunties</title> <meta property="og:title" content="Scotslanguage.com - Eat up, ye鈥檙e at yer aunties"/> <meta property="og:description" content=" EAT UP, YE'RE AT YER AUNTIES, n. This wee phrase is defined succinctly in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) as to “help yourself liberally”.   This command to visitors (who are not necessarily visiting an auntie) makes a relatively late appearance …"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://d3lmsxlb5aor5x.cloudfront.net/library/image/Dewar - Eat up.JPG"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="candidate" content="0"/> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.0.3/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet"> <link href="/stylesheets/screen.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="/stylesheets/admin.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="/stylesheets/print.css" media="print" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />  <script src="/js/modernizr.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </head> <body class="english">  <header> <div class="header-container"> <a class="language-switch" href="/site/language/language/scots">View site in Scots</a> <div class="social-bar"> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/42594346@N03" class="flickr">Flickr</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/scotsonline" class="youtube">YouTube</a> <a href="https://instagram.com/scotslanguage" class="instagram">Instagram</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/scotslanguage/" class="facebook">Facebook</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/scotslanguage" class="twitter">Twitter</a> </div> <h1><a href="/">Scots Language Centre <span>Centre for the Scots Leid</span></a> </h1> </div> </header> <nav class="top-level toggle"> <div class="hamburger toggle-menu">Menu</div> <ul id="yw1"> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="/pages/view/id/6">What is Scots?</a></li> <li><a href="/articles/view/type/3">News</a></li> <li><a href="/books/view/65">Scots song</a></li> <li><a href="/pages/view/id/8">Advocacy</a></li> <li><a href="/pages/view/id/9">Education</a></li> <li><a href="/pages/view/id/10">Scots Dialects</a></li> <li><a href="/articles/view/id/710">Contact</a></li> </ul> </nav> <div class="nav-spacer"></div> <div class="page-wrapper " id="wrapper" > <section class="article">  <article data-id="6687" data-context="article" data-template="referance" class="word-article"> <div class="referance feature-image"> <div class="image" data-media="8267" style="background-image:url('https://d3lmsxlb5aor5x.cloudfront.net/library/image/large/Dewar - Eat up.JPG'); "></div> </div> <div class="three-col extended right"> <h1>Eat up, ye鈥檙e at yer aunties</h1> <div class="editor"><p> </p><p><a href="https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/auntie">EAT UP, YE'RE AT YER AUNTIES, <em>n</em>.</a></p><p> </p><p>This wee phrase is defined succinctly in the <a href="https://dsl.ac.uk/">Dictionaries of the Scots Language</a> (DSL) as to</p><p> </p><blockquote><p>“help yourself liberally”.</p></blockquote><p> </p><p><img data-media="image8267" data-id="8267" data-src="https://d3lmsxlb5aor5x.cloudfront.net/library/image/large/Dewar - Eat up.JPG" data-size="large" alt="Dewar - Eat up" title="Dewar - Eat up" class="inline" src="https://d3lmsxlb5aor5x.cloudfront.net/library/image/large/Dewar - Eat up.JPG" /> <em>[Illustration by Bob Dewar]</em></p><p> </p><p>This command to visitors (who are not necessarily visiting an auntie) makes a relatively late appearance in DSL. The first occurrence comes from Alan Spence writing in Streets of Stone: An Anthology of Glasgow Short Stories (1977):</p><p> </p><blockquote><p>“All the glasses were drained and set down empty on the table. ‘C’mon now people,’ said Tommy. ‘Get wired in therr!’ ‘Eat up,’ said Mary. ‘Yer at yer auntie’s!’”.</p></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p>In the 1990s, a commentator from Argyll gave us:</p><p> </p><blockquote><p>“Eat up, ye’re at yer auntie’s: eat up!’.</p></blockquote><p> </p><p>Later, in January 2002, the Guardian made this interesting comparison:</p><p> </p><blockquote><p>“Further to Fritz Spiegl’s Liverpudlian adjuration to start eating (Letters, January), the Glasgow version is ‘Eat up, ye’re at yer Auntie’s’ - though why it should be grannies in Liverpool but aunties in Glasgow, I have no idea. My dad encourages diners with the words, ‘Stick in till ye stick oot!’, but then he’s a Church of Scotland minister (retired) so is naeb’dy’s auntie”.</p></blockquote><p> </p><p>The phrase remains popular among foodies, as seen in this September 2023 piece from the <em>Scotsman</em>:</p><p> </p><blockquote><p>“Never has the phrase ‘Eat up, you’re at your auntie’s’ been more apt than when visiting the Sisters restaurant in Kelvingrove as you really do feel like you’re visiting a favourite relative and by Jove will you want to eat what’s put in front of you”.</p></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p><em>This Scots Word of the Week comes from </em>Dictionaries of the Scots Language<em>.</em></p><p><em>Visit DSL Online at </em><a href="https://dsl.ac.uk/"><em>https://dsl.ac.uk</em></a><em>.</em></p><p> </p></div>  <div class="social-share"> <ul> <li class="twitter"><a 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Eat up, ye鈥檙e at yer aunties