gardyloo

== English == === Alternative forms === gardy loo === Etymology === From French (prenez) garde à l'eau (“take heed of the water”). First attested in 1662, in the burgh records of Edinburgh. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɡɑːdɪˈluː/ Rhymes: -uː Hyphenation: gard‧y‧loo === Interjection === gardyloo (Scotland, historical) A cry used to warn passersby before emptying a vessel of wastewater into the street. 1771, Tobias Smollet, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Dublin: Printed for A. Leathley, J. Exshaw, H. Saunders, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlain [and ten others], OCLC 277265635, republished in The Novels of Tobias Smollett, M.D.: viz. Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Humphrey Clinker (Ballantyne's Novelist's Library; II), London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., 1821, OCLC 271400557, page 626: [A]ll the chairs in the family are emptied into this here barrel once a-day; and at ten o'clock at night the whole cargo is flung out of a back windore that looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls Gardy loo to the passengers, which signifies, Lord have mercy upon you! and this is done every night in every house at Haddingborough; so you may guess, Mary Jones, what a sweet savour comes from such a number of profuming pans […] === Noun === gardyloo (plural gardyloos) (Scotland, historical) A cry of “gardyloo”. 1992, Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!, London: Secker & Warburg, ISBN 978-0-436-53120-0; republished by Harvill Secker, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84655-673-9, pages 231–232: […] I began to round up the scattered empties which, without so much as a ‘gardyloo’, I chucked from the window into the backcourt. An act of discarding waste or some other substance from a height. Also attributive and figurative. 1818, Walter Scott, “The Heart of Midlothian”, Tales of My Landlord: Second Series, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company; James Ballantyne and Co.; republished in The Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott: Containing ... Tales of My Landlord. The Monastery., Paris: A. & W. Galignani, 1827, volume II, pages 304 and 348: I believe the auld women wad hae greed, for Lucky Mac-Phail sent down the lass to tell my friend Mrs Crombie that she had made the gardyloo out of the wrang window, out of respect for twa Highlandmen that were speaking Gaelic in the close below the right ane. […] Mrs Glass, who had been in long and anxious expectation, now rushed, full of eager curiosity and open-mouthed interrogation, upon our heroine, who was positively unable to sustain the overwhelming cataract of her questions, which burst forth with the subliminity of a grand gardyloo […] 1993, Ian Rankin, The Black Book: An Inspector Rebus Novel, London: Orion Books, ISBN 978-1-85797-080-7; republished by Orion Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7528-8357-1: Siobhan Clarke looked like she'd stepped under a gardyloo bucket. She tried not to show it, and smiled whenever she saw him looking in her direction, but there was definitely something up with her. (figurative) Caution, warning. 1989, Harlan Ellison, “Crying ‘Water!’ in a Crowded Theater”, Harlan Ellison's Watching, Los Angeles, Calif.: Underwood–Miller, ISBN 978-0-88733-067-4; republished by Open Road Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4976-0411-7: And now, to be usherhandled up the aisle, my ear pincered excruciatingly, my dear sweet Granny kvetching along behind, intoning half-Yiddish gardyloos about my certain future as either a demented hunchbacked bell-ringer, or a Cossack love-slave ... how ignominous! === See also === loo === References ===