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: <1375, 1375-1384, 1499-1632, 1683
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Sandy, -ie, adj. Also: sandey, sandi-, ? sandé. [ME and e.m.E. sandy (Wyclif), sondy (c1440), OE sandig (c1000).] Consisting of, or covered in sand; sandy.See also Sandy-bed n. a1500 Buke of the Sevyne Sagis 2019.
A hammere & small sandy stanys 1533 Boece 447.
The place of the feild was sandy ground 1579 Reg. Privy C. III 129.
The ground … is sandy and stanerie 1596 Dalr. I 50/6.
This kynde of fishe … in cleir water delytes, and in sandie furdes 1596 Ib. 100/14. 1600-1610 Melvill 21.
I began to lope upe upon a litle sandie bray ?1549 Monro W. Isles (1961) 63.
Ane little laich mane [sandey] ile 1683 Dumbarton B. Rec. 93.
The house newlie builded by him upon the sandy mollen
b. As the first element of place-names, as Sandy knowis, -landis.Also in the surname Sandilands, q.v. in Black Surnames. 1348 Misc. Spald. C. V 245.
Willelmus de Douglas … confirmasse Jacobo de Sandilandis … omnes terras meas de Sandilands 1375 Barb. vi 397.
He schupe him in the nycht to far To Sandylandis 1384 Reg. Episc. Aberd. I 169.
Jacobo de Sandilandis 1531 Ib. 399.
Terris vocatis ly sandelandis a1568 Sempill Sat. P. xlvii 40.
He sew na seid in to hir Sandelandis — c1505 Reg. Cupar A. I 261.
Nixt the sandy knoys 1550 Ib. II 97.
Sande Knowis — 1632 Lanark B. Rec. 324.
The Sandieburne
c. Comb. in sandie-snowted, appar., with a snout covered in sand, or of a sandy colour. 1632 Prognostication.
A sandie-snowted hog
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"Sandy adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/sandy>
