A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1983 (DOST Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Pik(k)-, Pickil(l, -le, n.1 Also: pic- and -ell. [Cf. 17th c. Eng. (north.) pickle (1656). Only Sc. and north. Eng. dial., of unknown origin.]
1. A grain or corn of barley, wheat or oats.Beir pickill, a barley-corn. Also transf. = strong ale. Peppar-pickle, a pepper corn.Pickill nearest the wind, cf. north. Irish dial. ‘the pickle next the wind’, referring to the next daughter (in order of age) due to be married.(1) 1551 Hamilton Cat. 211.
As breid is maid of mony pickillis of corne and as wyne is maid of mony berryis sa [etc.] 1590 Dalyell Darker Superst. 377.
Sum pickellis of quheit 1597 Misc. Spald. C. I. 92.
Piklis 1622 Scot Course of Conformity 40.
The smallest … pickle of seed is … to be fanned away 1624 Huntar Weights & Measures 2.
A corne or pickle of wheat taken out of the middest of an eare of wheate is the foundation of a graine weight 1638 Henderson Serm. 50. 1658 Hibbert P. No. 21.
Butt for the bear thair was not a pickle of itt sold att the wreitting heirof 1662 Crim. Trials III. 603.
Pikles of all sortis of grain —1596 Dalr. I. 63/12.
Nochtwithstandeng growis thair nocht ane trie, nocht ane pickle quheit, nochtheles in ates and beir it abundes(2) 1649 Lamont Diary 9.
Crieping things … which remained in the head of the stalke of corne att the roote of the pikkell 1662 J. Livingstone in Sel. Biog. I. 202.
The Lord that quickeneth the pickle that is sown in the ground 1685 Sinclair Satan's Inv. World 163.
The silly bit chiken gar cast it a pickle and it will grow meikle (1685) Fountainhall Decis. I. 334 (see Curn n. (2)). 1699 Belhaven Rudiments 9.
The body of the pickle will be turned to a root like that of grass(3) 1584-9 Maxwall Commonpl. Bk. fol. 1 b.
How mony beir pickillis is ane myle? ?a1640 Copie of a Baron's Court (1821) 14.
[Baron] … As for myself I can as well be merry With the bear pickle as the Spainish berry a 1683 Craven Ch. in Orkney 106.
Ane disson peppar-pickles(4) 1662 Crim. Trials III. 606.
The said Margret Wilson hes an niknam called Pikle neirest the wind
b. A single grain (of salt, dust, sand, etc.); a fragment, particle or granule.1604 Dundonald Par. Rec. 55.
He … brocht to him as it ver pikilis of stiffing [= starch] 1607 Crim. Trials II. 536.
Nyne pickillis of salt 1632 Rutherford Lett. (1891) 75.
Ye shall run out your glass even to the last pickle of sand 1635 Dickson Wr. 95.
So God for one or two pickles of good stuff will purge it and cast away the bad 1680 Cloud of Witnesses 44.
Such a poor weak frail pickle of dust as I am 1699 Kirkton Hist. xli.
[God] can make a soul of a picle of sand
2. A small quantity (of anything quantitative); a little.Also, without of.(1) 1638 Cant Serm. 13 June 1638 (1741) 23.
There is not a pickle of hair in thy head but [etc.] a1646 Wedderburn Voc. (1709) 8.
Grumus salis a pickle of salt 1657 Hibbert P. No. 19.
Never one did come to buy a pickle of itt [sc. meal] 1661 Elgin Rec. II. 294.
And that she gaue ane pickle of wormewood —1618 Trial Isobel Inch 9.
A pickill woll c 1664 Hay Fleming Six Saints I. 362.
I will die whinging upon a pickle straw(2) 1638 Glasgow B. Rec. II. 565.
Ane loik [of malt] vpoun the back of ane bonnet callit ane pickle 1662 Reid Auchterarder 222.
Get another snuff for devil an pickle more ye will get of it
b. In opposition to gritte: A (comparatively small) quantity (of wool). Cf. Kurne n. —1629 Lowther's Jrnl. 42.
A picle or keoren of wool is 100 stone of etc.: a gritte is all above a hundred stone
