A facsimile of the first The Broons annual was released on 25 November 2006 and of the first Oor Wullie annual the following year, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the strip. Women and the Scottish Press – the curious case of Jessie M. King(s) By Charlotte Lauder, Karen Mailley-Watt

jings’, Macquarie Dictionary https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/aus/word/map/search/word/jings/The%20Riverina/ (Consulted 19 October 2020). With time, the Scottishness of Oor Wullie so very prominent in the earlier issues has been toned down in the more recent issues. This, however, does not mean that Oor Wullie has become less interesting or that it is not just as playful today – with new digital means of communication. Sandy Hobbs, ‘Oor Wullie Goes to School: A First Look’. Microfilm. Paisley Coll. of Technology, Renfrewshire (Scotland). Dept. of Applied Social Studies, 1987.Hobbs, S., ‘Oor Wullie Goes to School: A First Look’. Microfilm. Paisley Coll. of Technology, Renfrewshire (Scotland). Dept. of Applied Social Studies, 1987. jingo, A. int. and n.’ , Oxford English Dictionary https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/101343?redirectedFrom=by+jingo#eid40393170(Consulted 19 October 2020).

Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 (Extended OCR) Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.16 Old_pallet IA18129 Openlibrary_edition jing, n.2’, Oxford English Dictionary https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/101330?redirectedFrom=by+jing#eid40391321 (Consulted 19 October 2020). Created by writer/editor R. D. Low and artist Dudley D. Watkins, the strip made its first appearance in the issue dated 8 March 1936. [1] According to the Scottish National Dictionary, jings is a ‘mild expletive’. 15 Its English equivalent would be ( by) jingo. 16 Furthermore, the Oxford English Dictionary explains high jingo! as ‘a piece of conjuror’s gibberish’. 17 Very similar to Oor Wullie’s use of the expression, the Oxford English Dictionary records that by jingorelates to the French par Dieu, meaning “by God”. 18 The occurrence of the word in the expression high jingo can be proven as early as the late seventeenth century (1670, to be precise). 19D.c.thomson & co ltd 3 Dc thomson 2 Dc thomson and co ltd 2 Broons books/oor wullie 1 D.c. thomson & co ltd 1 Waverley books ltd 1

a b "Oor Wullie marks 80 years since first appearance in The Sunday Post". The Sunday Post. 8 March 2016 . Retrieved 27 October 2021. Nowadays, the use of this word has become obsolete in English. However, jings or by jings is occasionally still in use in Scots and Scottish English. In its first recorded usage, by jing was shown to have been a swear word. The expression by jing was, for example, included in the poem “Halloween” by Robert Burns from 1785. 22 Similar occurrences of jings have also been noted in Australian English, even today. The Macquarie Dictionary defines jings as “A remark or whinge of derision when one is told one cannot have what one wants (i.e., go to the pictures, swimming, have money etc.): Jings! Also, jingies” – this is exactly the meaning evident in Oor Wullie.” 23

I myself spent at one point a school year in Great Britain and became fascinated by Oor Wullie. Later, I decided to make it the subject of my PhD thesis. 10 This study, entitled “The Scottishness of Oor Wullie”, looks at a range of questions. It investigates, for example, the dynamics of the stereotypes, along with the linguistic changes and the mechanisms of the great success Oor Wullie has been enjoying now for so many years. Given these premises, the thesis analyses phonological, morpho-syntactic and lexical features in Oor Wullie in the context of the changing topics between 1936 and 2004. jingoism’, Oxford Reference https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100020889 (Consulted 19 October 2020). Ingvild Haavet Bjørnson, Michty me, whit are ye gassin’ aboot? The use of Scots in the newspaper comic strips The Broons and Oor Wullie. Master Thesis. English Department, University of Bergen, 2009.