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: 1542-1570, 1621-1691
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Quhin, Quhine, Whin, n.1 Also, quhinn-, quhynn-, quhynn-, whinn-, whyn-, quyin; whine; quheine-. [ME and e.m.E. quyn (c 1400), wyne (c 1425), whynne (Prompt. Parv.), whyn- (1530), whin (1570): cf. Sw. hven, early Dan. hvine, Norw. hvine, hvén, kvein, ‘applied to certain grasses’ (OED).] Furze, gorse, whin; a bush, clump or mass of this; a quantity of whin gathered for fuel or other purposes. Also attrib. in sing.Usu. pl. or coll. pl.pl. (a) 1566-70 Buch. Comm. on Virgil Eclogues v 39.
Paliurus: ane busse lyk the quhinnis 1621 Acts IV 628/1.
Thair salbe no stackes of heather broome quhynnes nor vther fewall keipit … in anye of the vennellis 1645 S. Leith Rec. 58/1.
To imploy men to howe whinnes and to gait uthir necesaries for cleansing 1691 Foulis Acc. Bk. 136.
For 3 dayes … at howing the whins in the boig(b) 1626 Linlithgow B. Rec. 12 May.
Bot onlie sall … cutt the quhines that growis thairintill 1658 Confessions of Alloa Witches in Sc. Ant. IX 51.
Jonet Blak confesset the meeting with the diwell among the quhinis 1660 Melrose Reg. Rec. I 268.
Cuttis houckis away leids carries and takes the Newsteid quhines off and from the … lands of Newsteid 1663 Ib. II 67.
Whynes 1677 Edinb. B. Rec. X 324.(c) 1627 Colstoun Baron Ct. in E. Loth. Antiq. Soc. II 127.
And that ther ar quheines and ryse cutit lyand at the said William's hous endsing. 1652 Lamont Diary 50.
The whine generallie did blome, and some brome alsoattrib. 1628 Stirling Ant. IV 188.
To go furth to ane whine buss … and thair seik her healthe from God 1647 Durh. Univ. J. XXXIV 64.
She confest … he was the Devill, that appeired to her out among a whin breir
b. A branch or cutting of whin. —1542 Elgin Rec. I 72.
That shayth war it to gadder ane dussane of quyins and gar lesch him
c. A whin-thorn. —1688 Reg. Privy C. 3 Ser. XIII 252.
She … put her hand to the soll of hir foot to tak out some whines
d. In fig. context. —1629 Boyd Last B. 469.
The way of this life … is full of rubbes, and thornes, and pricking whinnes of piercing griefe
e. As a place-name. —1629 Retours I Inq. Spec. Edinburgh (639).
Portione terrarum de lie Quhins, morae et communis prati de Sauchtounhall
