1 December 2016
gillie or gilly
[gil-ee]
noun
1. Scot.
a hunting or fishing guide.
a male attendant or personal servant to a Highland chieftain.
2. ghillie.
Origin of gillie
Scots Gaelic
1590-1600; < Scots Gaelic gille lad, servant
ghillie or gillie
[gil-ee]
Spell Syllables
noun
1. a low-cut, tongueless shoe with loops instead of eyelets for the laces, which cross the instep and are sometimes tied around the ankle.
Origin
1590-1600; see gillie; apparently a type of shoe orig. worn by Scottish hunting guides
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for gillie
Historical Examples
“I think it is time to go back,” suggested the gillie in a dull, uninterested voice.
A Prince of Good Fellows
Robert Barr
The gem referred to was no other than our friend gillie White.
Rivers of Ice
R.M. Ballantyne
I accordingly, whilst holding on for all I was worth, sent the gillie ahead to stone him up.
Chats on Angling
H. V. Hart-Davis
Today’s quotes
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
– H. L. Mencken
On this day
1 December 1761 – birth of Marie Tussaud, French-English sculptor, founder of Madam Tussaud’s wax museum. Died 16 April 1850.
1 December 1901 – Britain and Russia in conflict over parts of Afghanistan, establish boundaries which eventually form modern Afghanistan.
1 December 1913 – Ford introduces the continuous moving assembly line which could produce a complete car every 2.5 minutes. This was a revolutionary change to car manufacturing and ultimately impacted on all manufacturing processes.
1 December 1919 – American-born Lady Astor is sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament. Lady Astor was not the first woman elected to Parliament however. The first was Constance Markiewicz, an Irish woman, who refused to take her seat because of her Irish nationalist views. Lady Astor and Sir Winston Churchill developed a love/hate relationship which resulted in many famous quotes from their repartee. For instance, Lady Astor once said to Churchill, ‘If you were my husband, I’d poison your tea‘. Churchill replied with, ‘If you were my wife, I’d drink it‘. Another famous exchange reportedly occurred when Lady Astor remarked on Churchill’s drunken state, ‘Mr Prime Minister, you are drunk. You are disgustingly drunk‘. Churchill, drunk but still quick with a quip, replied, ‘Lady Astor, you are ugly. You are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you shall still be disgustingly ugly‘. Some reports claim this latter exchange was between Churchill and socialist MP, Bessie Braddock.
1 December 1942 – British Government accepts the Beveridge Report that proposed the establishment of a welfare system to provide care for all people from cradle to grave.
1 December 1943 – conclusion of the ‘Tehran Conference’ during World War 2, in which the leaders of the three major allied powers, Churchill (Britain), Stalin (USSR) and Roosevelt (USA) met in Iran to discuss opening a second allied front against Germany. The conference also addressed Turkey, Iran, Yugoslavia and Japan, as well as post-war settlements between the three nations.