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.
Messan(e, n. Also: messo(u)n(e, -en, -in, macyn. [Sc. and Ir. Gael. measan, MIrish mesan (Macbain).] A small pet dog, a lap-dog.a1500 Bernardus 323.
Litile doggis and messanys with thar bellis c1500-c1512 Dunb. li. 22.
He is owre mekle to be ȝour messan, Madame, I red ȝou get a les ane c1536 Lynd. Compl. Bagsche 183. 1570-3 Bann. Trans. 164.
Your litle dog is lying vpon the secretaris lap (for ane litle messane was lyand vpon his knee) a1605 Montg. Son. xxviii. 9. a1598 Ferg. Prov. No. 880.
We hounds slew the hair, quoth the messoun a1628 Carmichael Prov. No. 1652.
We hounds, quo the hare messen, tuke the hair 1616 Aberd. Eccl. Rec. 84.
That nane within this congregatioune bring in with thame to the kirk ony messanes or doggis 1618 Trial Isobel Inch 6.
The devill apperit … in the similitude … of ane black litle quhalp, lyk unto ane lady's bonny black messen c1650 Spalding I. 195.
The haill houss dogis, messenis, and quholpis within Abirdene … slayne vpone the get 1640 Aberd. Eccl. Rec. 114.
[Not to] suffer thair dogges, whether thay be mastives, curres or messens, to follow thame … to the paroche kirkis 1684 Sibbald Scot. Illustr. iii. 10.
Canis Melitensis, a messin or lap-dog 1692 Pitcairne Assembly (1746) 37.
If you let in the curates, the devil's mastiffs, they'll worry God's own messons
b. comb. in messan-tyke (also as a term of abuse), -dog. —a1508 Kennedy Flyt. 495.
A crabbit, scabbit, euill facit messan tyke 1587 Crawford Mun. Invent. II. 185 (18 May).
That your hundis throw lang rest … ar growin to the compas and degenerat in macyntykis 1596 Dalr. I. 22/1.
Of the varietie of messen dogs with quhilkes gentle women vses to recreate thame selfes a 1706 Mare of Colinton i. 46.
[The mare was] With messan-dogs … chas'd and wounded
c. fig., as a contemptuous term for a ‘pet’, minion, toady, contemptible hanger-on, of another. —1596 Dalr. II. 464/11.
Knox and utheris apes or messenis of Caluing
