In Edinburgh alone, there are three eateries with 'scran' in their name: Southside Scran, the Scran and Scallie and - most simply of all - Scran on North Bridge.
Scran is a great old Scots (and Northern English) word that has been used as shorthand for cheap, tasty, filling grub for centuries, but where did it come from?
There’s an old myth that scran stands for “sultanas, currants, raisins and nuts”, namely a mixture of dried foods once doled out to sailors to prevent them catching scurvy on long trips. It’s a nice story, but unfortunately it’s complete rubbish.
Long before it came to be used to mean “food”, scran was actually 18th century slang for a bar tab (or “a reckoning at a boozing-ken”, as one dictionary defined it in 1725).
In 1825, it was recorded as a verb - to scran: "To gang to skran, or to be awa' skranning, phrases used by boys when they go to spend money on sweet-meats, etc." There were other variations, too. If you were "out on the scran" you were begging for food - and you might use a "scran bag " to collect what you were given.
Various definitions point to the term historically being used to describe inferior or scrappy food, bits of leftovers, snacks - food that was a bit of an afterthought or maybe even drunk food. There's a chance the word could be related Icelandic skran , rubbish, odds and ends.
It was later adopted by the military, who started using 'scran' to mean meals or rations.
So the next time you tweet something along the lines of "Every day ma maw gies me scran and a eat that in the car then go to ma grans n get lunch 2 afore a go back to work ahahh" spare a thought for the fact you're using the exact same word your ancestors did - going all the way back to 1725.
