Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1983 (DOST Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Plewman, n. Also: plewe-, pleu-, plow(e-. [North. ME. plew-man (c 1440), ME. and e.m.E. plouman (1271), plow(e-, var. of plough-man Pleuchman n.] A ploughman; a farm-labourer; also, a rustic, generally.Also attrib.More common than Pleuchman n.(a) 1456 Hay I. 239/12.
Labouraris of the erde as plewmen harow men wyne men and all labouraris and delvaris of the erde 1457 Exch. R. VI. 358.
Duobus servitoribus aratrorum qui dicuntur plewman 1508 Reg. Privy S. I. 246/2.
Johne Sym plewman 1513 Doug. x. xiii. 109. 1550 Prot. Bk. Sir Wm. Corbet 12.
Dischargit … the hyen that thair was plewman 1561 Dysart Rec. 16.
[The] plewemen of Balwearie 1577 Glasgow B. Rec. I. 65. 1591 Edinb. Test. XXIV. 227.
Quintene M^cQuhneȝie plewman 1605 Dundonald Par. Rec. 70.
Plevmen 1616 Kirkcudbr. B. Rec. II. 186.
xxxij s. for meit and drink gevin to his plewman 1638 Henderson Serm. 276.
The plewmen of this pleugh they are Satan and the evil angels; they hold the pleugh and are gademen to it and they yoke in the oxen into the pleugh and drives them up with their gades 1639 Baillie I. 212.
Our sojours were … most of them stout young plewmen(b) 1548 Knox III. 477.
The labourer or plowman 1652 Lamont Diary 46.
Robert Seaton one of the plowe-men of Lundyattrib. 1680 Cloud of Witnesses 38.
Poor plewmen-lads