100 Favourite Scots Words by Pauline Cairns Speitel sampler

BAM noun a stupid or incredulous person
Scots is a language rich in insulting vocabulary. When bam was
first added to the 2005 supplement to the DSL it was thought to
be a reduced form of bampot, which in its turn, is thought to
be a Scots version of English barmpot – ‘a pot for storing barm;
also figurative, an eccentric or mad person. ’ (Oxford English
Dictionary [oed] definition)
When revising the Concise Scots Dictionary, the editors discovered
another and more likely etymology. The word is indeed
probably a reduced form, but from bamboozle. In the oed, to
bam someone meant to trick or deceive a person and was noted
in 1738 by Jonathan Swift: ‘Her Ladyship was plaguily bam’d. ’
A story intended to impose upon the credulous was noted
earlier in The Life & Character of Harvey the Conjuror (1728)
‘He called the Profession of a Doctorship, in Physic, a Bamm
upon the world…’
However, when it came to be used to describe a credulous or
stupid person in Scots is unknown; our earliest example comes
from William McIlvanney’s The Big Man published in 1985:
‘Two canny play patience ya bam. ’ It is still used, in the 21st
century, to question the intellectual capacity of some people as in
this example, describing the behaviour of Outlander fans when
visiting ancient sites in Scotland, demonstrates: ‘Nothing biles
my bleed mair than desecration of ancient sites. This is Clava
Cairns. Johnny Foreigner – you’re perfectly welcome to come
ower and hae a wee shooftie. You’re NAE welcome to grafitti
the place and knock chunks oot o’ it! Get oot o’ my country ya
bams (fuming). ’ (From the Mail Online, 23 August 2017)
Pauline Cairns Speitel