Dreich
Dreich is a Scots word for weather that is dull, grey, damp and dreary, and by extension for anything tedious. It is pronounced to rhyme with "reek" but ending in the throaty "ch" of "loch", not a hard "k".
In practice
The Dictionary of the Scots Language gives the older sense as long-drawn-out and wearisome, which explains how a word about slowness became a word about weather: a dreich day is one that never quite rains hard and never clears. You will hear it from colleagues, bus drivers and weather presenters, and see it in Scottish newspapers. It can describe a meeting or a book as easily as a sky - "a dreich afternoon of slides".
Why it matters to newcomers
Edinburgh has plenty of dreich days between October and March, and the word is a small social key: saying it right, and agreeing that today is "awfy dreich", is about as safe an opening line as Scotland offers. It is everyday speech, not dialect for tourists, and nobody will think you are putting it on.
Related
- Haar - the sea fog that can make a bright day dreich in an hour
- Outwith - another Scots word in everyday official use