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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SPAIL, n., v. Also spale, spael, speal(l), spell; †speill; spil (Jak.). Dim. form speelick (Sh.). [spel, spɛl; rare and obs. spil]

I. n. 1. (1) A chip or sliver of wood broken off by an axe or plane, a wood-shaving, a thin strip or lath of wood (Sc. 1710 T. Ruddiman Gl. to Douglas Aeneis, 1808 Jam.; Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), spell, spil; Per., Fif., Lth., Ayr. 1915–26 Wilson; Bwk. 1942 Wettstein; Rxb. 1942 Zai; Uls. 1953 Traynor). Gen.Sc.; specif. a cross-slat of a wooden basket. Also attrib. = wooden, freq. applied to temporary wooden buildings put up by the Free Church of Scotland in various parishes after the Disruption. Adj. spailie, spellie, of wood: in spails or chips; also used subst., as a jocular epithet for a carpenter (Abd. 1971).Edb. 1708 Burgh Rec. Edb. (1967) 163:
An intire stack of spealls and cutts of timber.Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 146:
He's not the best Wright that casts the manyest Speals.Sc. 1763 Caled. Mercury (2 April) 157:
Any persons, who have a mind to purchase, may look at the timber which is marked with a spail taken off.Lnl. 1771 J. Finlayson Marches Day (1814) 18:
[He] ca's awa the lies as fast as a plain di's spales aff a deal.Sc. 1818 Willie of Duglass Daill in Child Ballads No. 101. D. xviii.:
He made a fire of the oken speals, An warmed his lady wee.Per. 1843 in A. Philip G. Henderson 13:
The first o' them a' tae be opened Was the spale kirk o' Monzie.Crm. 1854 H. Millar Schools i.:
The poor Friendship lies in spales on the bar of Findhorn.Wgt. 1877 “Saxon” Gall. Gossip 297:
He got an axe and went off and smashed it into spaels.m.Lth. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick 48:
Hew abüne your heid, an' ye'll get a spale in your ee.Abd. 1920 A. Robb MS. iii.:
He was gaun hame to auld Spellie to learn to be a vricht.Fif. 1937 St. Andrews Cit. (24 Apr.) 4:
She used to make a livelihood by selling speals and shavings.Slg. 1966 Stat. Acc.³ 145:
The reins or ‘bools' (bowls) were made of ash, hazel, or oak. The broader and thicker strips of oak that went from side to side of the basket were called ‘spales'.

Combs.: (i) spale-basket, a two-handled basket made of thin strips of wood, often used for carrying potatoes (Arg. c.1930; Bwk. 1942 Wettstein). Gen.Sc. Also in reduced form spail (Ayr. 1928); (ii) spale-boord, plywood; (iii) spale-box, a box made of thin wooden strips (wm.Sc. 1971), usu. of small size and used for storing money, pills, jewellery, etc. (Ork. 1747 P. Ork. A.S. XII. 50; Edb. 1767 Caled. Mercury (12 Sept.); Ork., Abd. 1971); (iv) spale-horn't, having broad, thin horns (Cld. 1825 Jam.); ‡(v) speill seive, a sieve set in a plywood frame (Ork. 1971); (vi) spale-skull, = (i) (Bwk. 1942 Wettstein). See Scull.(i) Arg. 1931 Neil Munro Para Handy (1997) 279:
Para Handy and Dougie were going to bed, and Macphail was there already, when Hurricane Jack gat back to the ship and excitedly demanded a large spale basket.Lnk. 1948 Scotsman (10 Nov.):
20 Dozen Wire and Spale Potato Baskets.(ii) Wgt. 1877 G. Fraser Sketches 304:
To climp on the tarry ropes, and having nothing but a bit of a spale-boord between him an' etarnity.Abd. 1887 [J. Cowe] Jeems Sim 18:
There wis a mannie made o' spell-boord jist like a Heelander.(iii) Rs. 1720 Pitcalnie MSS. Inventory:
Another Speal Box containing a fine head suit of french Silk, a pair of Ruffels of the same.Ork. 1747 P. Ork. A. S. XII. 50:
A Spale box containing 10 wine glasses.Sc. 1830 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1855) III. 19:
Has the dowg swallowed the spale-box o' pills?Sc. 1857 J. W. Carlyle Letters (Froude 1883) II. 316:
A pair of waxen babes of the wood covered with moss in a little oval spale-box.Abd. 1960 Buchan Observer (9 Feb.) 3:
In bottles big, in bottles sma', In boxes, tin and spale.(v) Ork. 1747 P. Ork. A. S. XII. 52:
3 speill seives, 2 timber rings, with iron hoops.

(2) a splinter run into the skin (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). Gen. (exc. I.) Sc. Adj. spaily, full of splinters, rough, of wood (Edb. 1954).Per.⁴ 1950:
This plank's ower spaily for sittin on.Sc. 1957 Daily Express (9 Jan.) 6:
The phrase “Plowt your finger!” — an instruction to plunge one's finger into boiling hot water if it had a ‘spail' in it.Sc. 1999 Scotsman 13 Apr 19:
The flow continues with two [proverbs] which reflect the archetypal cheerful and optimistic Scot: "If it's no clegs, it's midgies" and the even more succinct "If it's no scab, it's skitter." More: "He that hews aboon his heid may get a spale in his ee" Edb. 2002:
Spale - a wooden splinter in finger, etc.

(3) a (wooden) spill or taper used for lighting (Uls. 1953 Traynor; Ork., n.Sc., Ags., Per., Lnk. 1971), or for matchsticks.Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) II. 64:
To hane in Candle I had a Spell Baith cheap and bright.Slk. 1917 Border Mag. (Oct.) 230:
Dry pieces or strips of wood — “spales” we used to call them — the ends of which were slightly pointed and dipped in molten brimstone or sulphur.Abd. 1955 W. P. Milne Eppie Elrick xxv.:
A fir spell wi a tittie mair roset tull't.

2. A lathe or thin plank used for filling up interstices between the beams of wooden houses (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.); a splinter used as a wedge for pit-props (Ayr. 1971).

3. A small piece of anything, a fragment, smithereen, lit. and fig.; something of small or no value.Ayr. 1787 Burns Add. Beelzebub 39–40:
But smash them! crush them a' to spails, An' rot the dyvors i' the jails!Edb. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 23:
To get a spail dung frae their name I' courts, an' thole a little shame.Slk. 1820 Hogg Poems (1864) 291:
They rave and they rugged, he cared not a speal, . . . But, Lord! when he felt the cold nose of an eel.Wgt. 1877 “Saxon” Gall. Gossip 138:
Slashing the Danes up into spaels.Abd. 1920 D. Rorie Auld Doctor 30:
The haill apotheck lay in spails.

4. Used to mean a wooden drinking vessel. The word is found in two independent versions of the ballad below but is prob. orig. a corruption of Scale, n.¹, 1., q.v.Abd. 1828 P. Buchan Ballads I. 94:
Berry-brown ale and a birken speal, And wine in a horn green.Sc. c.1830 in Child Ballads (1956) I. 430:
“What gaes in a speal?” she said, “What in a horn green?”

5. A curl of wax appearing on a burning candle, commonly considered as an omen of impending death for the one in whose direction it turned (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 432, spale; ‡Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Mry., Ags., Per. 1971). See also Deid, III. 46.Sc. a.1776 Herd's MSS. (Hecht 1904) 239:
On the can'le a spale was seen: The gude preserve my dearie!Ags. 1830 Perthshire Advert. (29 July):
Some forty years ago, we remember to have seen a whole company of grown up people of both sexes, turn pale at the sight of what is vulgarly called, a spael in the candle.Sc. 1834 H. Miller Scenes 471:
A spale on the candil turn'd to the bride, An' a coffin louped frae the fire.Sc. 1876 Bk. Sc. Story 540:
Her hale life was made just a dull round till her, unless when she dreamed o' burials, or saw a spale at the candle.Mry. 1897 C. Rampini Hist. Mry. 333:
A “spale” or “waste” on a burning candle indicates an approaching death.

6. A pin with which to stretch something out (Ork. 1929 Marw., spell); specif. a short wooden spar used to keep the draught-traces of a plough apart so that they do not rub on the horse's hind legs (Id.); a wooden skewer for stretching a split fish apart to dry (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), spil, Sh. 1971).

II. v. 1. In vbl.n. spailin, spieling, a shaving of wood (Per. 1971). Used fig. in 1879 quot.Sc. 1879 P. H. Waddell Isaiah xl. 23:
Wha maks lairds o' the yirth but a toom spailin.Dmf. 1912 J. Hyslop Echoes 7:
Keeping the fire well supplied with the “spielings” from the newly-cut clog soles.

¶2. Of a candle: to form spails, to burn away. See I. 5.Sc. 1926 H. M'Diarmid Penny Wheep 47:
The talla spales And the licht loups oot.

3. To skewer a split fish in order to keep it open when hung up to dry (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), spil, Sh. 1971). Cf. Norw. spila, id.