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.
Sconce, Skonce, n.2 (ME and e.m.E. skonse ‘a lantern or candlestick with a screen to protect the light from the wind, and a handle to carry it by (c1392), a bracket-candlestick, usually of brass or iron, to fasten against a wall (c1450)’, (OED), aphetic f. F. esconse lantern, also a hiding-place, L. sconsa, shortened f. L. abscons-, p.p. stem of abscondere. Cf. OIcel. skons lantern, candlestick (1397 in a church inventory.) —1643 Edinb. Test. LX 279b.
Twa hand sconces estimat boith to xiij s. iiij d. … ane meikle wand skonces pryce thairof iiij lib. 1651 Buccleuch Mun. II 291.
Ane wand skonce —1683 Inv. in Donibristle Mun. (Earl of Moray's MSS.) 1 (9–10 May).
Thrie guilded sconcess without socketts Ib. 17.
Tuo gilded sconces without noses 1715 Household Bk. Gr. Baillie 184.
For the stair lantron 6 s., 2 stair sconces 7 s.
