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.
May-pole, n. [e.m.E. may(e pole (1554).] A maypole … —1625 Lanark Presb. in Mill Mediæv. Plays 263.
John Baillie [etc.] … prophaners of the Sabbothe in fetching hame a maypole, and dancing about the same upone Pasche Sonday a1651 Calderwood VII. 458.
Upon the first of May [1621], the weavers in St Paul's Worke … set up a highe May pole, with their garlants and bells hanging at them
