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Skellum

Dialect
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A rogue, scoundrel, or good-for-nothing; a mischievous or untrustworthy person.

Detailed Definition
"Skellum" is a magnificently dismissive word for a particular kind of rascal, combining contempt with a degree of reluctant affection. It appears in Burns in contexts of social satire and comic characterisation, naming the unreliable, the dishonest, or the delightfully disreputable. The word's sound is itself slightly comic, and in verse it can be used to condemn or to celebrate depending on the poet's tone. It exemplifies the Scots ability to hold moral judgement and affectionate recognition in productive tension.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Skellum" means a scoundrel, rogue, or rascal; Burns uses "skellum" in "Tam o' Shanter": "Wi' drucken Charlie Brand the Blacksmith / And ilka melder wi' the miller, / Thou sat as lang as thou had siller; / Ev'n Satan glowr'd, and fidg'd fu' fain, / And hotched and blew wi' might and main: / Till first ae caber, syne anither, / Tam tint his reason a' thegither, / And roars out: 'Weel done, Cutty-sark!' / And in an instant all was dark!"; A poet might write: "The skellum smiled and bowed his head — / and left ye poorer once he'd fled." for a warning portrait; "She loved the skellum, mair's the pity — / his charm far outran sense or city." explores the attraction of rogues; "Every village has its skellum — / the one who bends the rules tae fell 'em." sociologically places the character; "A skellum's word is sweetest air — / believe it and ye'll find nae there." warns with proverbial rhythm
Additional Notes
Skellum is a character type as much as a vocabulary item — the rogue, the scoundrel, the charming ne'er-do-well who may be dangerous or merely mischievous. In Burns's moral universe, the skellum is a figure of some complexity: disapproved of officially, but often rendered with a certain affection, even admiration for their vitality and freedom from convention. "Tam o' Shanter" begins with an apostrophe to Tam's wife Kate, who rightly identifies her husband as a "blethering, blustering, drunken blellum" — a kind of super-skellum. For students, the skellum is a key figure in the Scots comic tradition, where roguishness and energy are not entirely disqualifying moral qualities.
Also Known As
Rascal Rogue Scamp
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