A variant or diminutive form, possibly referring to a small brank or a person prone to brangling.
Diminutive formation from 'brank' with the '-ie' suffix, common in Scots English for creating smaller or affectionate versions of nouns.
Diminutive suffixes in Scots can be surprisingly creative—adding '-ie' to harsh words like 'brank' softens them just enough to make mockery possible, which is very much in the spirit of Scottish humor!
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