Talk:Broomielaw

RFD discussion: April–September 2023

The following information has failed Wiktionary's deletion process (permalink).

It should not be re-entered without careful consideration.

---

Broomielaw

Rfd-sense. Proper noun, sense 1: "A street beside the Clyde in central Glasgow, Scotland". Similarly to #Avus above, this sense fails to meet CFI's requirement that individual streets be supported by figurative senses, and when I previously nominated it it was kept on the basis that it was not singled out in that discussion. — excarnateSojourner (talk · contrib) 04:24, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

• Delete unless a figurative sense can be demonstrated through verifiable quotations. — Sgconlaw (talk) 14:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

  A fig sense is possible. It's not only a street, there is a quay there, used by Glaswegians in the past to go by steamer "doon the watter" "frae the Broomielaw". I've seen some lines of verse, so perhaps the nominator would like to do some legwork instead of dishing out RFDs. DonnanZ (talk) 18:21, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

  @Donnanz: what would be the figurative sense in such a case? — Sgconlaw (talk) 18:41, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

@Sgconlaw: I'm not sure. At least it's been written about. Here's a piece from The Scotsman:

The practice of going doon the watter was immortalised in the song - Song for the Clyde:

‘There’s Paw an’ Maw at Glasgow Broomielaw.

They’re goin’ “doon the water” for “The Fair.”

There’s Bob an’ Mary, on the Govan Ferry,

Wishin’ jet propulsion could be there.

There’s steamers cruisin’, and there’s “buddies” snoozin’,

And there’s laddies fishin’ frae the pier;

An’ Paw’s perspirin’, very near expirin’,

As he rows a boat frae there to here.’

DonnanZ (talk) 19:04, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

• Note that DonnanZ has changed the sense to include the quay, and added a photo of the quay. @DonnanZ I've now done a cursory Google Books search, but without any idea of what the figurative sense might be I had to search very broadly. It seems to also be a surname. — excarnateSojourner (talk · contrib) 19:34, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

I'm not worried about a surname at the moment. I found various versions of the song "The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvinhaugh" Here's one of them, Broomielaw is mentioned four times. DonnanZ (talk) 20:01, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

It is usual to refer to a quay by the name of the street running along the quay, or to even call the street itself a "quay", like the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, or any of many roads in the Netherlands called "Handelskade". So IMO these are not separate senses.  --Lambiam 10:24, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Looking at a map of the centre of Wellington, NZ, I can see five streets called quays. Two of them, Lambton Quay and Thorndon Quay, are no longer on the waterfront, so those names must be historical. In Glasgow, I'm wondering whether Broomielaw is more idiomatic than figurative. Ironically, the hamlet in Co. Durham is little-known. DonnanZ (talk) 10:57, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Dick Gaughan famously sings about 'ships sailin' doon the Broomielaw' in the very Scottish song 'Freedom Come All Ye'[1]. --Overlordnat1 (talk) 14:56, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

• RFD failed, sense delted P. Sovjunk (talk) 03:27, 25 September 2023 (UTC)