A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1971 (DOST Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Maid, n. Also: maide, mayd(e, maede, mad. [ME. and e.m.E. maid(e, mayd(e, meyde, ME. meide, mede; shortened f. Maidin.]Less common than Maidin.
1. A young girl, a damsel.a1500 Henr. Orph. 39.
[She] bare hym fair douchteris nyne … The secund maide namyt Melpomene c1475 Wall. ix. 1937.
In tym off pes, mek as a maid was he [sc. Wallace] a1500 Colk. Sow ii. 36.
This little maid … Was thair dochter c1500 Crying of Play 157.
I dreid thatt thair be nocht a maide In all this towne may me abyd c1500-c1512 Dunb. lxx. 4.
The mayd of maist humilite 1513 Doug. i. vi. 36.
Hir son … said, ‘Trewly, maide, in plane [etc.]’ Ib. ii. iv. 69.
Tharabout ran childer and madis ȝyng 1560 Rolland Seven S. 549. Ib. 8161.
It was na mayd bot alwayis was a man c1590 J. Stewart II. 35/188. Ib. 203. § 15.
Ane maikles maede preclair 1618 Trial Isobel Inch 8.
Ane mayd of the age of fourteine yer old 1639 Fugitive Poetry II. xvii. 5.
Widows, orphans, maydes and sakelesse ladyes
2. A virgin. b. The Virgin Mary.a1500 Henr. Annunciation 15.
A maid infild … Consave it suld 1490 Irland Mir. I. 123/20.
My lufit spous, lady, virgin and mayde, Mary c1500-c1512 Dunb. lxxxv. 22. 1513 Doug. iv. Prol. 39. a1550 Ave Gloriosa 73.
Thou mothir and mad allone c1550 Lynd. Meldrum 115.
Help me, sweit sir, I am ane mayd c1552 Id. Mon. 2342. 1567 G. Ball. 140.
My lufe … borne was of ane maid 1603 Philotus cxl.
Mak nyce and gar the larbair lowne Beleue ȝe be a mayd
3. a. A lady-in-waiting. b. A maidservant.Also bour-mayd Bour n. 3 (Rolland Seven S. 8142), and maid of honour.a1500 Henr. Orph. 123.
This noble king … Speris the maner, and the maid said thus 1490 Irland Mir. I. 137/28.
I am the ȝounge mayde, the humyll chaumerere and seruand of the … Lord 1567 G. Ball. 3. 1570 Leslie 297.
Speciallie the four maidis of honour quha passit with hir hienes in France 1584 Sempill Sat. P. xlv. 660.
Menstrallis, serving man and maid [: played]
4. Appar., ‘the Maiden’: see Maidin n. 6.a 1589 Maxwall in Paisley Mag. (1828) 384.
Fugiens pestem, the blok and Maide
