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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BENORT(H), BY NORTH, prep. and adv.

1. prep. To the north of. Cf. By-south. [bɪ′nɔrθ Sc.; bɪ′nɔrt Sh.]Sc. 1708 First Earl of Cromartie in Earls of Crm. (ed. Fraser 1876) II. 62:
For, in my little opinion, all benorth Tay cannot furnish them 600 horse.Sc. 1981 Bruce Lenman Integration, Enlightenment, and Industrialization: Scotland 1746-1832 44:
Adam Smith in 1759 obsequiously remarked that such was the tedium of life benorth Tweed that no Scots correspondent could hope to offer entertaining matter to a sophisticated southerner.Sc. 1983 Rosalind Mitchison Lordship to Patronage: Scotland 1603-1745 139:
The main core of support lay in the Lowlands benorth Tay and in the central and south-eastern Highlands.Sc. 1998 G. W. S. Barrow in Simon Taylor The Uses of Place-Names 56:
And whether the Christianising agent was Q-Celtic, as must surely have been the case benorth the Mounth, or P-Celtic, as is likely to have been true at many sites between the Mounth and Solway, ...Sh. 1932 J. M. E. Saxby Sh. Trad. Lore 66; Sh.⁴ 1934:
Another tune is called “Benort da deks [dykes] o' Voe” because it was heard being sung by Trows at that place.Abd. 1746 S.C. Misc. I. 371:
All by north Spey is in profound quiet.Abd.(D) [1805] J. Skinner Amusements, etc. (1809) 66:
O! a' ye bards benorth Kinghorn, Call your muses up and mourn.Ayr. 1787 Burns A Fragment (Cent. ed.) viii.:
While slee Dundas arous'd the class Be-north the Roman wa', man.

Followed by of. See Besooth.m.Sc. 1917 J. Buchan Poems 32:
And the folk that bide benorth o' the Clyde They speak a langwidge that's no my ain.

2. adv.Ayr. 1803 A. Boswell Poet. Wks. (1871) 15:
The town may be clouted and piec'd till it meets A' neebours benorth and besouth without haltin'.