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.
Mensural(l, a. [e.m.E. (1609), med. L. mensural-is.] In music: ‘Measured’; applied to the ‘mensurable’ system of music, whereby notes and rests had fixed relative durations and which employed combinations of independent voice-parts, in contrast to plain-song. —c1550-c1580 Art of Music i.
Throw the quhilk all nottis and pausis … ar in mensurall proportion deducit Ib. 23 b.
In ane mensurall sang Ib. 46 b.
Ane fractur … of symple noittis in dywers figuris mensurall, the quhilk to name is callit discant Ib. 94.
Conform to the way of music mensurall
