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, 1600-1699
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Scarth, Scart, Scarf, Scrath, n.1 Also: skarth, skart. [17th c. Eng. scarfe (1668), ON skarfr. Also in the later dial. of Orkney and Shetland.] A cormorant.(a) c1450-2 Howlat 181 (A).
The scarth a fische fangar, And that a perfyte 1501 Doug. Pal. Hon. 1206.
Pyssacone, After his deith, … Intill ane skarth transformit was anone 1513 Id. Æn. v iii 49.
Quhar skarthis [Ruddim. skartis] with thar bekis … glaidly thame pronȝe and bekis 1633 (1711) Sibbald's Orkn. & Shetl. (1845) 5.
Yielding no commodity to the neighbouring inhabitants, but skarts and solane gees 1661 Ray Remains 192.
The other birds which nestle in the Basse are these; the scout, … the cattiwake, … the scart [etc.] 16.. Macfarlane's Geog. Coll. III 113.
It [sc. the Bass Rock] has abundance of common doves, turtle-doves, skouts, skarts, and all sorts of sea fowls(b) 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii xiii 107.
The sussing of the kitnings, clamring of scarfes, whimpring of fullmarts(c) 1683 Coll. Aberd. & B. 100.
The scrath, the budoch, are two great black fowls; … these … dive under water
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"Scarth n.1". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/scarth_n_1>
