Kailyard

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term representing a rustic and simple garden typical of rural settings
2. A description for gardens that celebrate the charm of country living and traditional horticulture
3. A modest, old-fashioned garden usually found beside Scottish cottages, used for growing vegetables and herbs

Etymology: Kailyard is a Scots compound built from two words. "Kail" is the Scots word for cabbage, or more broadly for kale and the leafy green broths made from it, and "yard" is the enclosed patch of ground around a house, the same word as English "yard" and German "Garten". Put together, the pair describes the simple vegetable plot that stood beside a Scottish cottage. The compound is useful mainly for what it came to suggest. Because kail was the everyday food of ordinary Scottish households, the kailyard became a shorthand for humble rural life, and in literary criticism the term was later used for a sentimental school of Scottish fiction that portrayed village life in a warm, idealised way. The word thus moved from a patch of cabbages to a whole style of storytelling.