[‘ Dismal, gloomy; cheerless; miserable as a result of cold, illness, etc.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈuːri/, U.S. /ˈuri/, Sc. /ˈuri/, Irish English /ˈuːri/
Forms: 17– *ourie*, 17– *owrie*, 18 *oory*, 18 *oury*, 18– *oorie*, 19– *ourey*.
Etymology:Origin uncertain. Sc. National Dict. s.v. ourie adj. suggests derivation ultimately < a variant of owl n. or owl v. (compare spec. Scots senses ‘to treat harshly’, ‘to be dejected’, and the derivatives oolin downcast, ooled downcast); compare also Scots oor to huddle with cold, shiver, oorit cold, shivery (see Sc. National Dict. s.v. oor v.).
In sense 2 influenced by eerie adj.
Connection with oury adj. seems unlikely. (The two were interpreted as showing the same word in N.E.D. (1903).)
N.E.D. (1903) enters this under Ourie adj., and gives the pronunciation as (ɑu·ri) ˈaʊrɪ.
/Sc./ and Irish English (north.).
*1.* Dismal, gloomy; cheerless; miserable as a result of cold, illness, etc.
1787 R. Burns /Poems/ (new ed.) 200, I thought me on the ourie cattle, Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle O’ winter war.
a/1810 R. Tannahill /Lasses a’ Leuch in /Poems/ (1846) 145 Maggie was sitting fu’ ourie an’ blate.
1823 J. Galt /Entail/ I. xxvii. 233 The birds sat mute and ourie, and the Clyde, increased by recent upland rains, grumbled with the hoarseness of his wintry voice.
1837 R. Nicoll /Poems/ (1843) 82 The winter raindrap owrie fa’s.
1865 J. W. Carlyle /Lett./ III. 261 That oory, dingy paint and paper.
1932 R. L. Cassie /Sc. Sangs/ 31 Seg an’ cats’-tail spread a net Owre an ourie, goorie bit, Fleer’t wi’ fog aye fickle.
1953 M. Traynor /Eng. Dial. Donegal/ 203/1 /Oorie/, dismal, depressing..woe-begone.
1973 E. Morgan /From Glasgow to Saturn/ 75 ‘Yon is an ourie pliskie!’ Wha wan the tulzie?
1996 C. I. Macafee /Conc. Ulster Dict./ 241/2 /Oorie/, owrie, dismal, depressing; sad-looking, dejected.
*2.* /Sc./ Of a thing: uncanny, disquieting; = eerie adj. 2. Also: (of a person) uneasy, apprehensive; = eerie adj. 1 (now Shetland).
1843 J. Ballantyne /Gaberlunzie’s Wallet/ 113 He daundered doun closes, baith ourie an’ dark.
1877 G. Stewart /Shetland Fireside Tales/ 4 Ir ye no oorie sitten yoursell doon here?
1877 A. G. Murdoch /Laird’s Lykewake/ 21 Jist as she had spak’ the words, oot the laich door-step An oorie fit was heard to fa’.
1917 J. L. Waugh /Cute McCheyne/ 36 A queer oorie kind o’ feelin’ cam’ ower me.
1926 ‘H. MacDiarmid’ /Drunk Man/ 26 Your sallow leafs can never thraw, Wi’ a’ their oorie shakin’.
1988 W. A. D. Riach /Galloway Gloss./, /Oorie/, frightening.