InScotland, a wirry-cow (Scots pronunciation: [ˈwɪɾɪkʌu̯, ˈwʌɾɪkʌu̯]) is a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object.[1] Sometimes the term is used for the Devil or a scarecrow.
Draggled sae 'mang muck and stanes, They looked like wirry-cows
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[2]), in its old sense of harassment[3] in both English[4] and Lowland Scots,[5] from Old English wyrgan cognate with Dutch wurgen and German würgen;[6] and cowe, a hobgoblin, an object of terror.[7][8]
Wirry appears in several other compound words such as wirry hen, a ruffianly character, a rogue;[9] wirry-boggle, a rogue, a rascal; and wirry-carle, a snarling, ill-natured person, one who is dreaded as a bugbear.[10]
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