In Scotland, a wirry-cow () is a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object.SND: worricow Sometimes the term is used for the Devil or a scarecrow.
The word was used by Sir Walter Scott in his novel Guy Mannering.
The word is derived by John Jamieson from worry (Modern Scots wirry), in its old sense of harassmentJamieson, John (1808) Jamieson’s Dictionary of the Scottish Language p. 606 in both EnglishOnline Etymological Dictionary and Lowland Scots,DOST: wirry from Old English cognate with Dutch and German ;Onions, C.T. (ed.) (1966) The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology Oxford, p.1013 and cowe, a hobgoblin, an object of terror.The Online Scots Dictionary: coweSND: cowe
Wirry appears in several other compound words such as wirry hen, a ruffianly character, a rogue;DOST: wirry hen wirry-boggle, a rogue, a rascal; and wirry-carle, a snarling, ill-natured person, one who is dreaded as a bugbear.SND: worry
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