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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

COTTAR, Cotter, Cottier, n. Also coater. Older meaning: a tenant on a farm who occupied a cottage with or without a piece of land attached, the farmer working the cottar's land in return for services rendered; a peasant who occupied a cottage and rented a small plot of land from a landlord. Now applied to a married dependant on a farm who has a cottage as part of his contract. [′kɔtər, ′kɔtɪ̢ər]Sc. 2000 Herald 30 Sep 16:
He reminds us of the worst losers: the cottars, the Highland underclass without title to their land. A century ago one cottar in one Lewis township was evicted; her goods bundled into a cart; her little house demolished - and that by no factor but by village crofters.Ork. 1774 P. Fea MS. Diary (30 May):
Had my Servants brakeing up Ware att the Air the Cottars being all absent.ne.Sc. 1952 John R. Allan North-East Lowlands of Scotland (1974) 69:
Besides the sub-tenant there may have been cottars, who had a house but no land, though they may have had the grazing of a few sheep or even a cow. Abd. 1825 Jam.²:
In Aberdeenshire, formerly the servant employed as a ploughman by a farmer had generally a separate house assigned him, with a piece of land, and was denominated . . . the cottar; while the other sub-tenants were, for the sake of distinction, designed cottar-men or cottar-fouk. Hence, till of late, the ploughman was called the cottar, though living in the same house with his master.Abd. 1980 David Toulmin Travels Without a Donkey xii:
The thing that annoyed him most I think was my working for other farmers in the evenings for extra cash to run the motor-car, since he had no need for us on overtime at the home farm, not at the time, but being a cottar you were practically owned by your employer, and he jealously guarded your efforts for his own benefits. Ags. 1845 P. Livingston Poems and Songs 21:
There the cottar and the laird Lie side by side an' slumber In the auld kirk-yard.Bwk. 1845 Stat. Acc.² II. 174:
Secondly the cottar . . . engages to do harvest work.wm.Sc. 1986 Robert McLellan in Joy Hendry Chapman 43-4 20:
Elspeth Hamilton, a cottar
Janet Hamilton, her daughter.Lnk. 1769 R. Frame Interest Lnk. 9:
The lower class of our industrious inhabitants (our cottars as they were called, our day labourers as we now call them).Ayr. 1786 Burns Cotter's Saturday Night ii.:
The toil-worn cotter frae his labor goes, This night his weekly moil is at an end.Kcb. 1895 S. R. Crockett Men of the Moss-Hags ix.:
The man was in his own country, and among his own kenned faces, his holders and cottiers.

Combs.: (1) cottar bairn, a cottar's child; (2) cottar beer, cotter-bear, coaters' bear, a boll of barley given to a cottar as part of his remuneration; a patch of barley grown specially for cottars; (3) cottar dung, manure collected by a cottar, who was allowed the first crop from the land so manured; (4) cottar house, a house occupied by a cottar on a farm, a tied cottage on a farm. Gen.Sc.; (5) cottar market, “the market held for the hiring of cottars” (Abd.¹³ 1910); (6) cottar's ha', a cottar's cottage; (7) cottars'row, a row of cottar-houses. See Raw, n.¹, 3; (8) cottar town, a group of houses inhabited by cottars and their dependants (Ags.¹ 1937); cf. cottown s.v. Cot; (9) cottar wark, -work, stipulated work done by a cottar for the farmer on whose land he dwells, as part of his contract (Abd.²² 1937; Abd. 1868 G. Macdonald R. Falconer I. xx., — wark).(1) Abd. 2000 Herald 12 Oct 7:
But mostly, we two were left to our own play with the half dozen or so cottar bairns who, by chance, were all boys.(2) Abd. 1749 Abd. Estate (Third S.C.) 86:
Two yokings of two ploughs in the coaters' bear land.Lth. 1801 J. Thomson Poems (1819) 120:
Janet first at Meg did spier, How looks your lint and cottar beer?e.Lth. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ II. 354:
One boll of barley, for cotter-bear, as it is called.(3) e.Lth. 1794 G. Buchan-Hepburn Gen. View Agric. e. Lth. 92:
A considerable extent of ground is annually manured in this county, by what we call the cottar dung.(4) Sc. 1782 Caled. Mercury (19 June):
One of that part called Overcotts, terminated by the new road to the eastward, ending on the westmost cottar-house. ne.Sc. 1952 John R. Allan North-East Lowlands of Scotland (1974) xx:
Although most of the old damp dark cottar houses have been modernised or left to fall, the tied house is maybe still one of the greater disincentives.Abd. 1972 D. Toulmin Hard Shining Corn 9:
An avenue of beech and plane trees leading to the main road and the cottar houses at the entrance.Per. 1819 Edb. Ev. Courant (19 July) 4:
The tenant will be authorised to subset the pendicles and cottar houses. Fif. 1832 Fife Herald (8 Nov.):
He was carried to the cottar-house of Kinkell.(6) Abd. 1845 P. Still Cottar's Sunday, etc. 17:
I sing that hallowed day as spent in cottar's ha'.(7) m.Lth. 1921 A. Dodds Antrin Sangs 19:
Yonder is the cottars'row.(8) Ags. 1822 A. Balfour Farmers' Three Daughters 16:
According to the fashion of the good olden times, there was a cottar town attached to Broombank, containing a number of families; the fathers were all employed on the farm, and also several of the sons and daughters; the cottagers were allowed grazing for a cow, and several other little immunities.(9) Cai. 1812 J. Henderson Gen. View Agric. Cai. 231:
Some of the cottagers paid a day in the week to the farmer, by the name of cottar-work.