100 Scots Words from Outlander – free online book

Jan 30, 2025

Hard on the heels of the UK screening of Outlander Season 7, Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) are delighted to announce the release of a new publication – 100 Scots Words from Outlander – presented as part of our new suite of popular online content. This new project builds on the success of our Scots Word of the Week series (published on Saturdays in The Herald) and our 2019 book, 100 Favourite Scots Words.

Some years ago, we observed significant spikes in searches for words that don’t usually appear in our top word searches. It became clear these were Scots words featured in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander book series, so we asked a small group of readers to read the books and excerpt all the Scots words on our behalf. Their word lists revealed the extensive research Diana had clearly done into the Scots of her novels’ historical era. One hundred of those words form the basis of this new publication.

We are very grateful for the warm encouragement and support of Diana Gabaldon, who has provided a foreword to 100 Scots Words from Outlander. We are also grateful to her agent and publishers for their support and permission to reproduce lines from the Outlander series of books.

Further information

  • 100 Scots Words from Outlander can be accessed free of charge at [100%20Scots%20Words%20from%20Outlander]dictionary.scot/outlander.
  • Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland, a regional or minority language of Europe, and as a vulnerable language by UNESCO. According to Scotland’s 2021 census, more than 1.5 million people can speak Scots.
  • Dictionaries of the Scots Language is the nation’s authority on Scots. We are also a publicly-funded charity. Our Scottish National Dictionary and Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue are national institutions and together provide a unique record of the language—and of the history, culture and traditions—of Scots-speaking people from the earliest times to the present day. All 22 volumes of these dictionaries are freely available through the Dictionaries of the Scots Language Online at dsl.ac.uk. 

For more information contact our CEO at rhona.alcorn@dsl.ac.uk