stovies

English

Etymology

From a blend of stoved (“stewed”) + tatties (“potatoes”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Source? Why not just from stove + the common Scottish -ie diminutive?”)

Noun

stovies pl (plural only)

1. A traditional Scottish dish of stewed potatoes and onions with cold meat.
   • 1975, Amy Stewart Fraser, Dae Ye Min′ Langsyne?: A Pot-Pourri of Games, Rhymes, and Ploys of Scottish Childhood, page 203:

     At home, after the fun of Dookin′ for Apples was over we sat round a huge dish of delicious stovies, which had cooked very slowly on the top of the stove in a covered pan, with salt and pepper and knobs of butter. Threepenny bits and charms were hidden in the stovies.

   • 2008, Alan Bews, One Boy′s Dinner Please, page 44:

     During the winter months my granny always made me stovies on a Saturday and she would spoon them on top of the hot pie and I would sit at a table in front of the fire eating contentedly and thinking about the films I had seen that morning. Stovies, as my grandmother made them, were potatoes and onions cut into pieces and cooked slowly in a pan with only a covering of water at the bottom of the pan, a tablespoonful of roast beef dripping and some salt and pepper. They were delicious.

   • 2012, Jessie Macquarrie, Camus Calling, UK: AuthorHouse, page 8:

     They accepted her offer graciously, not having a clue what ‘stovies’ might be. Meg soon explained that stovies was a traditional hearty scots meal made from potatoes, onions and left over meat served as a stew.

Anagrams

• Soviets, soviets, sovites