Co-habiting is not a pretty word. Co-habitee sounds even worse. But I’ve just discovered that the Scots have a lovely way of describing a live-in partner: they call them a bidie-in.
I expect most of you knew that already. Sorry to be so, well, southernly. But maybe you won’t have heard of a poem I came across at the same time. It was submitted as part of an exhibition called The Art of Love, held in 2005 by Londonart.co.uk and written by the poet Diane Hendry.
The poem is called Application. It goes like this:
O let me be your bidie-in
And keep you close within
As dearest kith and kin
I promise I’d be tidy in
Whatever bed or bunk you’re in
I’d never ever drink your gin
I’d be your multi-vitamin
I’d wear my sexy tiger skin
And play my love-sick mandolin
It cannot be a mortal sin
To be in such a dizzy spin
I’d like to get inside your skin
I’d even be your concubine
I hope you know I’m genuine
O let me be your bidie-in.
I like the sound of Diane. I’m now off to track down some more of her work.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
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1 comment:
I first came upon this excellent expression when I met my in-laws-to- be for the first time. The lived up in Scotland on Deeside, and my late father-in-law used lots of words that were new to me: loon = young man, quine/quinie = girl, forenoon = morning, and talking of an elderly couple living down the road I remember him saying "they're not wed you know, she's his bidie-in".
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