Wirry-cow

In Scotland, a wirry-cow [ˈwɪɾɪkʌu, ˈwʌɾɪkʌu] was a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object. Sometimes the term was used for the Devil or a scarecrow. Draggled sae 'mang muck and stanes,They looked like wirry-cows — Allan Ramsay The word was used by Sir Walter Scott in his novel Guy Mannering. The word is derived by John Jamieson from worry (Modern Scots wirry), in its old sense of harassment in both English and Lowland Scots, from Old English wyrgan cognate with Dutch wurgen and German würgen; and cowe, a hobgoblin, an object of terror.

Wirry-cow

In Scotland, a wirry-cow [ˈwɪɾɪkʌu, ˈwʌɾɪkʌu] was a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object. Sometimes the term was used for the Devil or a scarecrow. Draggled sae 'mang muck and stanes,They looked like wirry-cows — Allan Ramsay The word was used by Sir Walter Scott in his novel Guy Mannering. The word is derived by John Jamieson from worry (Modern Scots wirry), in its old sense of harassment in both English and Lowland Scots, from Old English wyrgan cognate with Dutch wurgen and German würgen; and cowe, a hobgoblin, an object of terror.