Meaning 1
In Scottish usage, messages can mean shopping or the goods bought on a shopping trip; to go the messages means to go shopping or run shopping errands.
How it is used
The shopping sense can refer to the errand itself or to the groceries and other purchases brought home. Traditional phrases such as go the messages make the regional meaning especially clear.
Examples
- “I'm away for the messages before the shops shut.”
- “She put the messages away when she got home.”
- “Can you go the messages on your way back?”
Pronunciation
/ˈmɛsɪdʒɪz/ · MESS-ij-iz
Tone and register
Neutral and domestic, associated with ordinary errands and household routines rather than with deliberately slangy or performative speech.
Visitor guidance
Visitors should use context to distinguish shopping messages from written or electronic messages. The phrase may be familiar to many Scots even where individual usage varies by age or region.
Cultural context
This sense shows how an everyday English-looking word can carry a regionally specific meaning. The Scottish National Dictionary records shopping-related uses across Scotland and across generations.
Origin
The Scottish National Dictionary documents message and messages in the sense of an errand, shopping, or goods obtained on an errand, with Scottish quotations extending from the eighteenth century into modern usage.
Meaning 2
In Irish English, the messages can mean shopping, groceries, household errands, or the goods collected while doing those errands; expressions such as do the messages, get the messages, or run messages can refer to going to shops and carrying out small household tasks.
How it is used
Foras na Gaeilge's New English-Irish Dictionary records message in an errand/favour sense and gives Irish-English examples such as she got the messages for me and to run messages for somebody. Irish Times writing likewise explains doing or going for the messages as shopping for food and household necessities, often with a strong small-shop and domestic-errand association.
Examples
- “I'm heading into town to do the messages.”
- “She got the messages on the way home.”
- “He used to run messages for his grandmother after school.”
Pronunciation
/ˈmɛsɪdʒɪz/ · MESS-ij-iz
Tone and register
Neutral, familiar, and domestic. The phrase can sound traditional or generational to some speakers, but it belongs to ordinary household vocabulary rather than comic or performative Irishness.
Visitor guidance
Visitors should understand the whole phrase rather than interpreting messages as texts, notes, or phone messages. In modern Ireland shopping, groceries, or errands may be more immediately transparent in mixed-company conversation, but the messages remains useful recognition vocabulary. Do not assume every Irish speaker uses it with the same frequency.
Cultural context
The Irish sense shows how errands, shopping lists, neighborhood shops, and household routines can reshape an ordinary English noun. Irish commentary has connected the phrase with being sent to local shops for food and other necessities, while modern dictionary evidence still records the errand and shopping constructions. The overlap with Scottish usage is especially valuable for Maperla because one canonical spelling carries a closely related regional household meaning in two distinct English traditions.
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.
Comparisons featuring this term
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Related terms
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Related guides
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ScotlandScots Words & Scottish English: A Practical Guide
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