Scottish word of the week: Bonnie

A Bonnie lassie onstage. Picture: PA Wire/Dominic Lipinski

A quintissentially Scottish word if ever there was one, bonnie - meaning pretty or beautiful - is actually thought to be derived from the French word ‘bon’.

Though, like its French antecedent, it can also used to describe something as being good, it more often applies to praise towards the fairer sex - “a bonnie lassie”.

Bonnie is also a girls’ name - some famous ones include singer Bonnie Tyler, Bonnie and Clyde, and actress Bonnie Wright. You may have noticed a lack of Scottish examples. Despite its provenance, Bonnie is a far more popular name in the US than in Scotland.

A word that remains in fairly common use to this day, a recent Scotsman story about opposition to houseboats on Loch Lomond ran with the headline: Houseboats? Not on our ‘bonnie banks’, say Loch Lomond Association.