TEd posted about glom-- (and thanks Grapho-- i never thought about glom being at the heart of conglomerate!)
this week PBS had a special on cows (and all the dairymen refered to the herd as cows, and all the beef men had herds of cattle!)and they pointed out the word SPREE, (as in a shopping spree) comes from scot's english for a cattle raid!

how about a word spree-- as we find and explore all the fun words that have come into common english from scotish english?

Latin con- 'with, together' + glomero 'to wind into a ball' (fr. glomus, glomeris 'ball; dumpling; skein; hank'). Probably not related to glom.

Helen, you sent me running (well, hobbling maybe) for my Pocket Scots Dictionary. It has spree, spry as an adj. meaning 1. spry, or 2. neat, smartly dressed; and as a verb meaning "smarten up". From the same page:
spue, spew verb 1. spew. 2. of a pudding burst, split open Shetland NE 3. of liquid, smoke, etc flow, pour (out etc), billow out.
noun 1. spew 2. (a puff of) smoke now Shetland Angus. 3. a retch.
spuin fou full, especially with drink, to the point of vomiting.

puddin(g) 1. a kind of sausage made from the stomach or guts of a sheep, pig, etc. oatmeal, onions, seasoning, etc.
2.puddins guts (of people or animals)
3. a stupid or clumsy person
keep the puddin het keep the pot boiling

From the pudding page:
puggie(1) 1. a monkey 2. contemptuous term for a person now Perth
as fou as a puggie extremely drunk
lose one's puggy lose one's temper

puggie(2) 1. marbles a hole into which the marbles are rolled 2. the bank, jackpot or pool in a game of cards etc. WCentral

Helen! Here's one you may want to look further into:
purls small balls of sheep or rabbit dung

For purl, I was directed to pirl, which says:
pirl, purl verb1. twist, twirl, coil, curl; roll, whirl 2. in football etc drive (the ball) with quick light strokes or kicks, dribble NE 3. stir, mix, poke (a fire) Shetland NE 4. spin, whirl round, rotate; swirl, eddy. 5. fumble. 6. move or work idly or half-heartedly now NE
noun 1. a curl, twist, coil. 2. a knot of hair, a bun. 3. an eddy or swirl, a ripple, gentle breeze
pirlie adjective curly, curled, twisted Now S
noun anything very small.
pirlie pig a circular, earthenware money box.

From AHD

spree

PRONUNCIATION: spr
NOUN: 1. A carefree, lively outing. 2. A drinking bout. 3. A sudden indulgence in or outburst of an activity. See synonyms at binge.
ETYMOLOGY: Perhaps alteration of Scots spreath, cattle raid, from Irish and Scottish Gaelic spréidh, spré, cattle, wealth, from Middle Irish preit, preid, booty, ultimately from Latin praeda. See ghend- in Appendix I.
WORD HISTORY: A spending spree seems a far cry from a cattle raid, yet etymologists have suggested that the word spree comes from the Scots word spreath, “cattle raid.” The word spree is first recorded in a poem in Scots dialect in 1804 in the sense of “a lively outing.” This sense is closely connected with a sense recorded soon afterward (in 1811), “a drinking bout,” while the familiar sense “an overindulgence in an activity,” as in a spending spree, is recorded in 1849. Scots and Irish dialects also have a sense “a fight,” which may help connect the word and the sense “lively outing” with the Scots word spreath, meaning variously, “booty,” “cattle taken as spoils,” “a herd of cattle taken in a raid,” and “cattle raid.” The Scots word comes from Irish and Scottish Gaelic spréidh, “cattle,” which in turn ultimately comes from Latin praeda, “booty.” This last link reveals both the importance of the Latin language to Gaelic and a connection between cattle and plunder in earlier Irish and Scottish societies.

Neat, Dr. Bill--thank you!

Berlin stands on the Spree river, but I guess there's no connection. Is there? Any of our German speakers know where the river name comes from, perchance?

where the river name comes from

They stole it from the Scots, of course!

They stole it from the Scots, of course!

Leave it to those clever and resourceful Scots to figure out how to steal a river.

And where did it come from? The source, of course.

Interesting about spree: "Perhaps alteration of Scots spreath, cattle raid, from Irish and Scottish Gaelic spréidh, spré, cattle, wealth, from Middle Irish preit, preid, booty, ultimately from Latin præda" 'booty'. As for the river Spree, it might be of Slavic or Germanic origin ultimately.

As far as I can make out, taking Dr Bill's etymology back still further, the Scottish ‘spree’ comes from the IE root ‘per’ - to try, to risk; this is the same as the root for ‘pirate’, so the definition of a spree being a cattle raid fits right in!

But sadly, it seems the river name Spree has no Scottish connections (there’s a surprise). It is akin to the English ‘spray’ and stems from the IE root ‘sper’ (to strew). It comes via the extended Germanic root ‘spr(e)w’ – spray, from Middle Dutch ‘spraeien’, ‘sprayen’, to sprinkle, from Germanic spr(e)wjan.

Vendryes in his etymological dictionary of Old Irish agrees with the A-H etymology that I quoted above. Spree is (via Gaelic) from Latin præda which derives from PIE root *ghe(n)d- 'to seize, take', as in all the -hend words, too. I see no reason to disagree. The river Spree etymology seems likely.

Quite right, I stand corrected. On re-examining the AHD I realise that I jumped to a conclusion that led from ghed- into an enticing but incorrect alleyway.

Yes, but sometimes those alleyways lead us into other interesting words.