A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Rotting, -inge, vbl. n. Also: rot-; rutt-. [ME and e.m.E. rotunge (c1230), -ing (Cursor M.), OE rotung; Rot(t v.] a. lit. and fig. The process of, or a state of, decay, corruption or decomposition. b. The fact of being infected by liver-rot. —a. a1400 Leg. S. vi 167, 169.
I say That ruttinge com of the flesch lechery … ; Of rottinge pollucione Is generit a1500 Henr. Test. Cress. 464.
Ȝour roising reid to rotting sall retour a1538 Abell 127a fol. xv b.
Pallas body … wes fund at Rome haill and sound withowt rotting —b. 1660 Melrose Reg. Rec. I 277.
They … does suffer the nolt to pasture upon the yew [= ewe] fence … , quhich wilbe the occasioun of roting of the whole goods that sall pasture therupon thairefter
