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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SHOT, n.4 Also shott, -sout, -s(h)uit. The compartment in a Shetland rowing-boat next to the stern, gen. used as a hold for the catch (Sh. a.1838 Jam. MSS. XII. 197, 1908 Jak. (1928), Sh. 1970), also of a sim. compartment in a Moray Firth boat (Bnff. 1928). Cf. efter-shuit s.v. Efter, IV. 16. Comb. shott-hole, id.Sh. 1822 S. Hibbert Descr. Shet. 510:
Another extricates the fish from the hooks and throws them in a place near the stern, named the shot.
Sh. 1886 J. Burgess Sketches 92:
He saw da bag plain, lyin' i' da efter shot o' da boat.
Sh. 1899 J. Spence Folk-Lore 127:
The boat was divided into six compartments, viz., fore-head, fore-room, mid-room, oost-room, shott, hurrik or kannie. . . . The shott was double the size of a room.
Sh. 1934 W. Moffatt Shetland 113:
In a few minutes the shot (aft end) of the boat is alive with struggling silvery fish.
Sh. 1950 A. Halcrow Sail Fishermen 69:
Beginning aft the first division in the stern was the shott-hole, or, as the Sassenach puts it, the cock-pit.

[Jak. assumes the form to be a scotticising of Norw. skot, skut, O.N. skutr, the prow or stern of a boat, the corresponding compartment in the boat (Norw. framskut, bakskut), but the reason for scotticising such a word is not obvious and it is simpler phonologically to relate the form to L.Ger. schot, a partition of boards between the hold and forecastle or stern, and so the same word as Shot, n.3, q.v.]

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"Shot n.4". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 27 Dec 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/shot_n4>

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