carnaptious

WATCHING carnaptious spoof TV reporter Jonathan Pie goosestepping outside a Scottish court is unnerving.

She basically has to put up with this carnaptious old curmudgeon and bats away all his wee foibles with appropriate put-downs.

To borrow a Scots word that Young himself uses in the introduction, Young is a carnaptious historian and writer, that is, a quarrelsome man.

Meanwhile, never one to ignore a suspicion of foul play, he steps out of vice and into murder when he goes against his relentlessly carnaptious boss and looks deeper into an apparent suicide.

I'm one of the most mild-mannered people you'll meet but I've been called carnaptious Kenny by the media.

Not to mention an endearingly carnaptious detective who makes Mark McManus's Taggart look chipper.

"He's a carnaptious old so-and-so who lightens up in company.

They missed carnaptious, but I'll settle for four compliments out of five.