Wirry-cow

In Scotland, a wirey-cow or wirry-carl (local pronunciation: [ˈwʌɾɪkʌu] or [ˈwɪɾɪkʌu]) was a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object. Sometimes the term was used for the Devil or a scarecrow.

Draggled sae 'mang muck and stanes, They looked like wirry-cows

— Allan Ramsay

The word was used by Scott in Guy Mannering. The word is derived by John Jamieson from "worry" ("wirry", in its old sense of harassment in both English and Lowland Scots) and "to cow/cowe" (i.e. "to frighten"), but as the second element sometimes appeared as "carl", Charles MacKay thought more likely that the second word was a corruption of "carl" (a man or fellow). The first word is possibly akin to "Urisk" (ùruisg, a brownie). The "urisk" was similar in attributes to the "lubber fiend" of Milton, and the wirry-cow itself.

It is noteworthy that "wirry-" appears in several other old compound words.

References

• MacKay, Charles – A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch (1888)