“That’s a fair chiel yiv got thur Erchie, are ye pittin ‘im in to the Games?”
Translate:
chiel: young man.
“That’s a fine strong young lad you have there Archibald. Are you going to get him to enter the Highland Show competitions?”
![[chiel spelled out in the phonetic alphabet.]](/comics/phonetics/chielph.gif){kind=small}
The Scottish Word: chiel with its definition and its meaning illustrated and captioned with the word used in context in the Scots language and in English.
When I was growing up in Angus in the 1950s and 1960s, a “chieil” was a man or a young man but not à boy. A boy was, and still is, a “loon”. These terms are still in common use in Buchan nowadays.
Our school newspaper was called “The Chaffee Chiel” We were told “chiel” was Scots for reporter, but I can’t find that. Is it so?
Sorry I’ve not heard of that. I looked on the Scottish dictionary site in case there were obscure meanings which they often mention. https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/chield but no.
It reads to me as the chattering/sweet youth/child. Chavie cheil. Nowadays morphed into chavs alas.