A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1501, 1567-1698
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Py, n.2 Also: pay(e. [ME and e.M.e. pye (1303), pie, a pie, also applied to a collection of things made into a heap (1526), of uncertain ulterior origin, but perh. related to Py n.1]
1. A pie; also, a tart. Also transf. and attrib.See also patatie paye, s.v. Patatie, and Pigeon-py.(1) 1501 Doug. Pal. Hon. 1726.
Thay maid … Ane paroche kirk of ane penny py a1568 Bannatyne MS 141a/30.
Its lyk that ȝe had eitin pyis Ȝe are so sweit 1587 Carmichael Etym. 18.
Arto-creas, a pie 1591 Thanes of Cawdor 208.
Twa dowsand pennie pyis c1650 Spalding I 69.
Ane bakin pye 1653–4 Peebles B. Rec. II 196. 1654 Scottish Notes and Queries 3 Ser. V 174.
[A baker rebuked] for careing pyes on Yoolday. He promised newer to baike the pyes for Yuilday 1663–4 Irvine Mun. II 267.
Tuo pyes of ressins 1671 Sc. Hist. Rev. LXI 155.
To denner ane pye, 0.06.00 1697 in St. A. Baxter Bks. 68.
Pis of beakin meat(2) 1665 Household Bks. Archb. Sharp in Misc. Maitl. C. II 527.
For venusone py 1698 Marchmont 183.
Dooh pay 1698 Ib.
Minth payetransf. a1585 Polwart Flyt. 755 (T).
Lik quhair I laid, and pikill of that pyattrib. 1614 Edinb. Test. Index II 388.
James Storie, pieman —1653 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries XXIII 302.
Two pye platters 1658 Boyd Fam. P. No. 236 (27 Feb.).
An py platt of Scottis peuder
2. To mak a pye, to prepair a py, to ‘make preparations’, with sinister overtones.1572 Satirical Poems xxxv 17.
Mar and the divelische Douglassis, … Dunfermling that the py prepaird, … These onlie wer the Judassis 1643 Baillie II 124.
Before ever he came near Oxford, the pye was made for him
