Whigmaleerie

"Whigmaleerie" is a Scots word. Doesn't it have a wonderful ring to it? Ian Buchan suggested it merited a posting and it certainly does.

Whigmaleerie is currently the name of a musical group but it has a number of meanings including, principally, a fanciful notion. It can also be a piece of ornamentation in a dress, a game played at a drinking club and a fantastical contraption. Nowadays, it is often applied to a rotating clothes dryer in a garden. William Souter (1898-1943), born near the village of Auchtergaven, Perth, wrote a poem of that title.