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.
Quotation dates: 1400, 1456-1515, 1580, 1691
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Moisture, -our, n. Also: moystour, -ure; mostour, -ure. [ME. (Chaucer) and e.m.E. moisture, moysture, -our, -er, north. e.m.E. (Cath. Angl.) mostour, OF. moistour (mod. F. moîteur).]
Moisture; also, liquid, more generally.(a) c1400 Troy-bk. i. 265.
The stryndes … Whar-throw the herbis … Maid moistour ay in ilk sessoune As hevin-gevin inundacioune 1456 Hay II. 138/14.
The fresche water is upliftit … and descendis agayn in rayn, snaw, haile or othir moisture 1456 Ib. 158/9.
The drinkis and othir moisturis that enteris be the mouth in wame c1515 Asloan MS I. 162/3.
The land is so hait & dry without moystour 1580 Skeyne Descr. Well 20.
Neither is there any moysture in the world except it … can draw a scarlet colour out of a nutgal(b) a1500 Henr. Fab. 1684 (Bann.).
Flouris … Quhilk … Phebus … Hes … paintit … With heat and mosture still and fra the skye c1515 Asloan MS I. 161/28.
Humouris & mostour dryit be hete of the son
b. Designating the humid property in medieval physiology. a1500 Henr. Test. Cress. 318.
I change … Thy moisture and thy heit in cald and dry 1691 Kirk Secr. Commonw. (1964) 282.
Her natural heat and radical moisture seem to be equally balanced
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"Moisture n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/moisture>
