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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Half-hour, n. Also: half-hour, halfe-hower. [ME. halfe hour (c 1420).] a. A or the half-hour. Also attrib. with glas.(1) 1529 Stirling B. Rec. I. 35.
The said Jhon haiffand ilk werk day ane half hour afor nyne houris … to his disjone 1536 Reg. Episc. Brechin II. 318.
To … wirk quhill aucht houris before none, and thane to haf ane half hour to his disiune 1665 Lauder Jrnl. 72.
A halfe hower afterattrib. 1615–16 M. Works Acc. XI. 8.
For tua sand glasis, ane haill hour glas, and ane half hour glas 1649 Cramond Speymouth Ch. 7.
Thair is takin out of the box to by ane half hour glasse … 18 s. 4 d. 1676 Row in Blair Autob. 142.
700 strokes of water pumped in the haif-hour glass(2) 1563-1570 Buch. Wr. .
Or iij howris ryng twyis, at halfe houre to five knel, at v ryng 1609 S. Leith Rec. 7.
The last beii to the preiching … to be rung … at halfe hour to ten in wynter 1655 Peebles B. Rec. II. 31.
He shall … conveane the bairnes at half hour to tua afternoone

b. The mechanism for striking the half hours. 1554–5 Edinb. Old Acc. I. 139.
The expensis maid upon the mending of the knok and halfhour Ib. 140.
For xj faddome of … cord to beir the pais of the half-hour 1595 Cart. S. Nich. Aberd. 395.
Payt … for the dichtin of the kirk knok and settin vp of the half our 1692 Aberd. B. Rec. IV. 313.