Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

VISEK, n. Also viseck (Sh. 1822 S. Hibbert Description 563), vis(s)ik; veesi(c)k, -ig. A ballad or song, usu. improvised and sung as an accompaniment to a dance (see quots.). Obs. exc. hist. [′vizək]Sh. 1774 G. Low Tour (1879) 163:
There is one species of dance which seems peculiar to themselves in which they do not proceed from one end of the floor to the other in a figure, nor is it in the manner of a Scotch reel, but a dozen or so form themselves into a circle, and taking each other by the hand, perform a sort of circular dance, one of the company all the while singing a Norn Visick. This was formerly their only dance, but has now given way to the reel.Sh. 1897 J. Jakobsen Dial. Sh. 7:
St Ola was one of the kings of Norway, of whom strange things are reported in the songs they have of him, called Vissiks. These ballads or ‘vissiks' were kept up for centuries to a great extent as accompaniment to dance. A foresinger or precentor began every verse, and the others joined in, siuging the chorus.Sh. 1908 Old-Lore Misc. I. viii. 316:
When the gathering [christening party] was about to break up a Norwick man suggested that we should ‘hae da pairtin veesig'. Then we moved slowly round to the measure of an old Norse tune, to which one chanted an improvised ballad.Sh. 1972 J. R. Nicolson Shetland 181:
Until the late eighteenth century, songs known as visecks formed the accompaniment to dances which must have resembled the ring dance still performed in Faeroe.