Language usage question: "outwith"

[steepholm]

I would have done this as a poll, but only have a basic account.

1 a) Are you familiar with the word "outwith"?
b) Do you use it yourself?
c) Does its use strike you as affected when coming from a non-Scot?
d) Do you get the impression that it is increasing in usage outwith Scotland?

2 a) Are you Scottish (or have lived a considerable time there)?
b) Welsh/English/Irish?
c) From outwith the British Isles?

Comments

[sheenaghpugh]

The Scottishism that alarmed me most was "where do you stay?" for "where do you live?" because it osunds so much less permanent and more aware of mortality!

Shetlanders also say "wife" for "woman". Not sure if that is Scottish or Norse-derived.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does! In Bristol, they ask where something is by saying "Where's 'e to?', which for a long time suggested something in motion to my Hants-sprung mind.

I don't know about wife for woman. It could come from either, I'd imagine, as that's the common Germanic meaning (woman = Old English wif-man, iirc), though now preserved mostly in words like fishwife and goodwife.