The First Foot Guards
We are a Revolutionary War
reenactment group based in Boston MA,
accurately portraying the royal household regiment that is now known as
The Grenadier Guards
Scots Guards
Scottish Guards
Scotch Guards
The usage is fixed to 'Scots
Guards', but could it not have been Scottish Guards or Scotch Guards?
The answer is 'yes, it could have been' for all three are acceptable forms:
it's just that it was formalized one particular way. Anyway, 'Scotchgard' is
now a 3M Company trademark for a stain-resisting application to carpets, and
'Scotch' (in the US at least) has become associated with whisky.
As the American Heritage
Dictionary points out, the adjective has become fossilized in certain usages:
Scotch broth
Scotch whisky
Scottish rite (Masonic)
Scots Guards
"The
American Heritage® Book of English Usage.
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
§ 59. Scottish
Scottish is the full, original form of the adjective. Scots is an old Scottish
variant of the form, while Scotch is an English contraction of Scottish that
at one time also came into use in Scotland (as in Robert Burns’s "O thou,
my Muse! guid auld Scotch drink!") but subsequently fell into disfavor.
To some extent these facts can serve as a guide in choosing among the many variant
forms of related words, such as Scot, Scotsman or Scotswoman, or Scotchman or
Scotchwoman, for one of the people of Scotland; Scots, (the) Scotch, or, rarely,
(the) Scottish for the people of Scotland; and Scots, Scotch, or Scottish for
the dialect of English spoken in Scotland. The forms based on Scotch are English
and disfavored in Scotland, while those involving the full form Scottish tend
to be more formal. In the interest of civility, forms involving Scotch are best
avoided in reference to people. But there is no sure rule for referring to things,
since the history of variation in the use of these words has also left many
expressions in which the choice is fixed, such as Scotch broth, Scotch whisky,
Scottish rite, and Scots Guards. "
More interesting stuff
from the AHED on
social, racial and ethnic terms
Click