A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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About this entry:
First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1600-1700+
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Stare, Steare, Starr, n.1 [ME and e.m.E. stare (Chaucer), staare (1530), OE stær.] A starling. Cf. Stirling n. —1701 Brand Orkney & Shetl. 37.
The stirlins or stares are as numerous I judge, as the sparrows are with us 1630 Gordon Geneal. Hist. 3.
Steares or stirlings … and all other kinds of wildfowl and birds a1706 Sibbald Hist. of Picts in Misc. Scot. I 20.
To taste of starr, hen, or goose, they think unlawful 16… Macfarlane's Geog. Coll. III 99.
