Hallion
A rascal, a good-for-nothing, a layabout. Pejorative but not deeply so - a hallion is annoying rather than wicked. Often used affectionately about a relative who can't be relied on, or pointedly about a stranger behaving badly.
Etymology
From Scots 'hallion' (= a rascal, a worthless fellow), origin uncertain. One reading takes it from 'hallow' in the older sense of 'crying out', producing a noun for a noisy nuisance; another from a personal-name root.
In a sentence
"That hallion has been hanging about the corner all week - somebody should have a word with him."
Historical notes
Hallion sits in the small Ulster Scots vocabulary of mild insults for men whose behaviour is below standard. The word is less pointed than 'gurrier' (which implies actual roughness) and less domestic than 'bowsie' (which implies drunkenness). A hallion is just a nuisance - a young man who won't get a job, an older man who won't stay sober, a stranger making trouble in a queue. The female parallel does not exist in this form; 'targe' or 'hesp' are the rough women-words.
Sources
- Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), entry HALLION n. · dictionary
- Macafee, Caroline. A Concise Ulster Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1996. · dictionary