Hands up who’s tried some Scottish haggis? Most of us, including me, would take one look and go ‘YUCK’ or ‘YECCH’! (Two words that are in the dictionary by the way!) That’s because haggis is traditionally made with the lungs, heart, and liver of a pig or sheep.

And if that’s not bad enough, it’s all wrapped up in a sheep’s stomach!

Apparently it can be delicious though, so apologies to all haggis-lovers out there.

Now, have a guess where the word ‘haggis’ comes from.

A. Was it originally described in a children’s fairy tale, cooked up in a cauldron by a cackling old woman (the ‘hag’ part)?

B. Does it come from an old Viking word meaning ‘to hack or cut to pieces’, which is what the warriors used to do to their victims?

C. Does it go back to the Old French word agace, meaning a ‘magpie’?

ANSWER: B!

In medieval times, the verb ‘hag’ meant to roughly chop something — the word was brought over by Viking invaders and comes from their native Norse language. You can imagine them swinging their battle-axes around their heads as they forced their way into the villages of Britain, preparing to ‘hag’ whoever stood in their way. And that’s where ‘haggis’ comes in, because it’s full of chopped meat.

Answer C isn’t completely wrong by the way, because our cooked ‘pies’ really are named after the magpie, thanks to its habit of picking up random bits of material that it finds — just as a pie is full of odds and ends of meat, vegetables, or other ingredients.