gillie:
( {in Scottish}; also ‘gilly‘; ‘ghillie‘; plural: ‘gillies‘; pronunciation; the letter ‘g’ in this word rhymes with the letter ‘g’ in the word “garden”)
a gillie (L) with a hunter (R)
a person whose job is to receive guests or visitors on behalf of his/her employer;
a man who serves/attends a sportsman while the sportsman is hunting/shooting or fishing;
a person whose job is to guide people while they are hunting; a professional hunting guide;
a young male attendant of a Scottish Highland chief,
young ghillies with a tourist angler
Probably a modern day receptionist or a parlour maid in the more recent years may be the equivalent of the good old traditional gillie employed by rich people in the past.
There are people who still engage gillies/ghillies when they go on fishing or hunting in the Scottish highlands.
It is fun to read names of businesses with ‘gillies’ in them but with different meanings, for instance, “Gillie Service” could be an office that supplies ‘gillies’ to anglers or hunters or it could be some other service provided by the owner with the first or last name ‘Gillie’.
a hunter in a ghillie suit
Note: ‘Gillie’, always with a capital ‘G’ & only with the spelling ‘Gillie’, is often found in the names of people, Robert Gillie, Gillie Smith, George Gillie, etc. For an article that explains the origin of this word as a surname, please click here. And this name is also found in names of places, e.g. Gillies Bay, Gillies Town, Gillies Lake, etc.
