Gutties
Plimsolls. Running shoes. Light rubber-soled shoes worn for PE in school or for casual wear. Always plural; the singular 'guttie' is rare. Now extending to mean trainers / sneakers in younger Ulster speech.
Etymology
From Scots 'guttie' (= gutta-percha, the rubbery latex used in the soles of early plimsolls), itself from Malay 'getah perca' (the sap of the Palaquium tree). The Scots and Ulster Scots form 'guttie' / 'gutties' began as a description of the shoe's rubber sole and broadened to mean the whole shoe.
In a sentence
"Don't forget your gutties - it's PE first thing tomorrow."
Historical notes
Gutties is the standard Ulster school-PE word: gym lessons in primary school happen in gutties. The word has been challenged by 'trainers' (British English) and 'sneakers' (American English) but remains the default in Northern Ireland, especially among older speakers and in school contexts. The Malay etymological origin is a small piece of colonial-era vocabulary survival - the rubber-tree resin called 'gutta-percha' lent its name to most of the early rubber shoe-making industry.
Alternate spellings
guddies
Sources
- Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), entry GUTTIE n. · dictionary
- Macafee, Caroline. A Concise Ulster Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1996. · dictionary