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: 1500-1589
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Scur(r)ilité, -ie, n. Also: scurilyte, scurrillitie, skurril-, scurrul-, skowrilitie. [e.m.E. scurrilite (1526), F. scurrilité, L. scurrilītās, f. scurrīlis.] Coarse mockery or jesting; slanderous, or insulting, invective; indecency of language; scurrility. c1500-c1512 Dunb. Flyt. 58.
Scarth fra scorpione, scaldit in scurrilitie 1513 Doug. ix Prol. 5.
Scurilyte [Ruddim. scurilite] is bot for doggis at barkis 1531 Bell. Boece I 25.
Providing allwayis that we remove seditioun, scurrilite, and avaricius leving, with sic thingis as may induce hatrent amang you 1531 Bell. Boece II 213.
Scurrilite [Bisset I 49/13 skowrilitie] 1560 Rolland Seven Sages 3541.
This burges … promeist hir … ane new garmoun For hir huredom and harlatrie And hir scabbit scurilitie 1562-3 Winȝet I 30/26.
Fra godly talk of pace, amitie, and frendschip, to scurrilitie, stryfe, and detractioun a1570-86 Arbuthnot Maitland Folio MS 51/87.
Bot outhir man I vse scurrilitie Or ellis sic strange and vncouth fremmitnes That [etc.] a1585 Polwart Flyt. 208 (T).
Allas! puir hudpyk, hunger bittin Accustomit with scurrulitie [H. scurrillitie] 1589 Chron. Perth in Mill Mediæval Plays 281.
The minister and elders gewis licence to play the play vith conditiouns that nather swering banning nor nane skurrilitie be in it
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"Scurilité n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/scurrilite>
