Scottish Twitter users have shared their shock after discovering that the word 'outwith' is only used in Scotland.
A flurry of posts saw users discover the term is only native to our bonnie lands, and not used further afield.
A Twitter account specialising in Scots words, @Lenniesaurus declared the term her word of the day.
The wordsmith joked that even she didn't realise it was only Scottish until her American and English friends argued with her over it.
In a clip posted on Twitter she jokes: "I'm not wrong, I'm just Scottish."
While another user added: "Are you even Scottish if you haven't experienced that frown-inducing moment of confusion and mild betrayal when you're presented with a wee squiggly red line underneath the word outwith?"
Scots usage
The dictionary of Scots language defines 'outwith' as being a preposition meaning: 'outside, out of, beyond'.
While the Cambridge dictionary, which defines it as Scottish English, has it as simply meaning 'outside'.
In modern Scotland, it's generally come to be used as the opposite of within (referring to something ‘inside’) - therefore meaning 'not within something'.
This is thought to be due to it being a Scots derivative of the English word 'without' when used in its original form as the opposite of 'within'.
The Scots Language Centre (SLC) calls it a "covert Scotticism", which they say Scots use unaware that it has been "unaccountably and irrationally lost from South British English".
They add that though it has been used by national newspapers, universities, the Scottish Parliament and even the Law Society and the Church of Scotland over the centuries, one of its earliest uses was by 17th century lexicographer John Skene.
The SLC noted that Skene used it at the end of the sixteenth century in his glossary of legal terms, 'De Verborum Significatione', to define ‘bastardus’ as “Ane bairne vnlauchfully gotten outwith the bande of mariage”.
Modern usage
It's become so prevalent and popular that spoken word researcher Katie Ailes even created a video poem discussing her love for the word in 2016.
One Reddit user probably summed our thoughts up on the word best when they said: "I still refuse to accept that 'outwith' is just a Scottish term.
"It's just so prevalent and useful it seems like everyone should be using it."
