Claggerd
Covered in something sticky and unpleasant - mud, food, paint, soup. A claggerd jumper has been wearing the contents of dinner; a claggerd dog has been in the bog. Always suggests the substance is hard to clean off.
Etymology
From Scots 'claggert' (= covered with something adhesive), itself from 'clag' (= sticky stuff, mud). Imitative roots probably underlie the family - 'clag', 'clog', 'clog up' all share the 'kl-' onset and the heavy-sticky-stuff meaning. The final '-rd' suffix is the participle/adjective ending.
In a sentence
"He came in claggerd from head to foot - looked like he'd been swimming in the slurry pit."
Historical notes
Claggerd is one of the precise Ulster Scots adjectives that English-elsewhere needs three or four words for. Standard English 'covered in muck' or 'caked' or 'gunged up' do similar work but in different registers; claggerd has its own particular Ulster flavour - heavy, sticky, and difficult. The word is especially associated with farm and outdoor work, where claggerd boots, claggerd hands, and claggerd dogs are everyday.
Alternate spellings
claggart · claggered
Sources
- Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), entry CLAG / CLAGGER. · dictionary
- Macafee, Caroline. A Concise Ulster Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1996. · dictionary