A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Counterfait, -feit, -fit, a. Also: countre-, cownter-, countir-, and -faitt, -feitt, -fete, -fet(t, -fitt(e, -fite. [Late ME. counterfayt(e, -fait(e, -feyt(e, -feit(e, etc., earlier -fete, -fet, variants of contrefayt etc.: see Conterfait a.]
1. Badly made, malformed.1456 Hay II. 40/7.
[Knights should not be] men countrefait in thair persone, na our grete growin men, na men our fat
2. Counterfeit, not genuine.(a) 1561 Inv. Wardrobe 135.
Thre single pandis … freinyeit with counterfait gold and siluer 1574 Acts III. 92/2.
Sic [placks and hardheads] as thay find fals and countirfait may be instantlie clippit doun 1593 Lennox Mun. 463.
We ar abusit be counterfaitt pasimentis of gold, … sett vpoun our clething 1622-6 Bisset I. 77/20.
Nor have I adhered to allurand fictionis, uttered be … maid up, counterfait, and fraising langaige(b) c1515 Asl. MS. I. 184/25.
Nobles, report ȝour matinnis in this buke, And wysly luke ȝe be nocht countrefete 1572-5 Diurn. Occurr. 344.
Greit quantitie of fals counterfit nioney a1578 Pitsc. II. 282/8.
The tulchen, to wit, ane feinȝeit counterfeitt bischope presented be thame to the regent Ib. 283/13.
Thir bischopis var namit throche the cuntrie the lordis counterfett bischopis a1585 Maitl. Q. lxxxi. 18.
Give me, my God, ane mynd not counterfeit 1600 Acts IV. 232/2.
The saidis … beggaris being for the maist pairt theiffis, bairdis, and counterfitt lymmeris 1603 James VI in Ellis Orig. Lett. III. 80.
I ame also glaide of the discoverie of yone litle counterfitte wenche 1626 Garden Worthies 29.
Randolphe … died, poysioned … by a monk, a counterfite phisitiane
