A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1450-1513, 1632
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Sale, Saill, n.1 Also: sail(e, sayll, cell. [ME and e.m.E. sale (Cursor M.), OE sæl (pl. salu) str. n., OF sale (1080 in Larousse), f. low L. sala, Frankish *sal (Larousse s.v. salle), It. sala.] A hall, a spacious chamber, chiefly, the, or a, great hall of a palace or royal or noble seat.Freq. in alliterative verse, chiefly in alliterative formulæ, and, in Douglas, in the phrase saill riall.(a) c1450-2 Howlat 279 (A).
To writ … To the athile Empriour, souerane in saile [: haile (= whole), temporale, dale (= valley)] c1450-2 Ib. 694.
All war merschalit to meit … Syne seruit semely in saile a1500 Golagros and Gawane 72.
The renk raikit in the saill, riale and gent, That wondir wisly wes wroght with wourschip and wele a1500 Ib. 144.
Than said the syre of the saill and the souerane [etc.] a1500 Ib. 508.
For thair is segis in yone saill wil set vpone sevin, Or thay be wrangit a1500 Ib. 1150.
The seymly souerane of the sail marschel he wes a1500 Ib. 428.
Sail a1500 Taill of Rauf Coilȝear 713.
Thair was seruit in that saill seigis semelie [etc.] 1513 Doug. vii iii 45.
Thar stude a gret tempill or sail [Sm. saill, Ruddim. sait] ryall, Of Lawrent cite seyt imperiall 1513 Ib. viii iv 129.
This gret cove of Cacus sail [Sm. sayll] ryall 1513 Ib. xiii viii 40.
Be this the kyng Latyn … entryt in the saill [Ruddim. sale] ryall on hie(b) a1500 Golagros and Gawane 1092.
How may I succour thé sound, semely in sale a1500 Ib. 1156. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix 401.
We came … to a large and vast roome … this great cell or hall is a yard deepe of blackish water and was the dining roome of Sybilla. … Hauing more than halfe way entered in this sale [etc.](c) 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix 401 (see (b) above).
Cell
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"Sale n.1". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 18 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/sale_n_1>
