Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Cow, n. ¹ Also: cou, cw. [ME. cow(e, cou, OE. cú. The usual Sc. spelling is Kow.]

1. A cow. 1375 Barb. xviii. 279.
Quhen the Erll of Varane That cow saw anerly cum swa 1456 Hay I. 157/8.
Quhasa war tane in sik weris … mycht be sauld in the mercate … as cow or ox 1549 Compl. 64/3.
The tail quhou Iupiter transformit his deir loue Yo in ane cou 1567 G. Ball. 197.
Pray na mair … to Sanct Bryde to keip thy cow 1596 Misc. Spald. C. I. 101.
xx dayis befor the cw was calfit … [she] desyrit the said Margret … to keip to hir … the beist of the said cw efter scho was calfit 1597 Ib. 137.

2. Attrib. and comb. with byre, cunt, feeder, hyde, horn, hous, soume, turd. 1547 Prot. Bk. J. Cristisone 94.
[Done at the] cowbyir of Mvkall 1555 Reg. Cupar A. II. 125.
Thair tak and tenement callit the Cowbyre of Kethik — c1530-40 Stewart Bann. MS. 140 b/21.
Thair teith so bawchs and bluntis For cumring off cow cuntis — 1700 Aberd. B. Rec. IV. 327.
The deceast Alexander Kynach, cowfeeder — 1570 Conv. Burghs I. 21.
The cow and olxin hydis stykand to the bouk — a1605 Montg. Sonn. lxii. 6.
My trumpets tone is terribler be tuyis Nor ȝon couhorne — 1600-1610 Melvill 604.
The rycht … of ane cow-hous or a caill-yaird — 1684 Peebles B. Rec. II. 114.
Whoever possessis any soumes of thair nighbours this yeir … pay … for every cow soume half a croun — 1681 Colvil Whig's Suppl. ii. 38.
What thou has said's not worth two cow turds