Bodle
Scottish coin
A bodle or boddle or bodwell, also known as a half groat or Turner, was a Scottish copper coin, of less value than a bawbee, worth about one-sixth of an English penny. They were first issued under Charles I, and were minted until the coronation of Anne. Its name may derive from Bothwell (a mint-master).
It is mentioned in one of the songs of Joanna Baillie:
Black Madge, she is prudent, has sense in her noddle
Is douce and respectit; I carena a bodle.
The use of the word survives in the anglicised phrase "not to care a bodle", which Brewer glosses as "not to care a farthing". Something similar appears in Burns' Tam o' Shanter (line 110), it is also mentioned:
Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle (He cared not devils a bodle)
Sources and credits
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