A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1499-1542, 1600-1699
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Stoppell, Stop(p)le, Stappel, Staple, n. [ME and e.m.E. stopell (139.), stoppell (Prompt. Parv.) stoppel (Caxton), stopple (1565), also stoupaille (Lydgate), F. estoupelle (16th c. in Wartburg), f. estoper Stop v.]
1. A device for closing the neck or orifice of a container; a stopper, plug, bung. Also fig. a1500 Henr. Fab. 2079.
The fraudfull foxe … with his teith the stoppell, or he stint, Pullit out and syne the hering … Out off the creillis he swakkit doun 1542 Treasurer's Accounts VIII 89.
Ane clam schell of silver … to mak ane new schell to keip the kingis halk meit, and ekit to the samyne twa unce thre groce wecht [etc.] … and to be ane stoppell to keip the kingis grace twithe pulder, price of the unce xvj s. 1684 Edinb. City Archives Letters II (32).
I have sent … 12 mutchkin bottles; the stoppells are within the cradle 16… Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries XI 193.
Tak a good lute maid of potters clay, … and lute ȝour pott ane inche thick thairwith, and mak a stopple of potters earth weill bruntfig. c1500-c1512 Dunb. Tua Mar. W. 339.
Ȝit tuk I nevir the wosp clene out of my wyde throte Quhill I oucht wantit of my will or quhat I wald desir. Bot quhen I severit had that syre of substance in erd … Than with a stew stert out the stoppell of my hals
2. Rendering L. paxillus ‘a small stake or peg’ (Lewis & Short).Cf. late ME Prompt. Parv. 481/1 ‘stulpe, or stake, paxillus‘, quoted in OED Stoop n.1 1 ‘A post, pillar’. Possibly stople in the Wedderburn quot. below represents a metathesised form of late ME stulpe, ON stolpe, in which case this quot. belongs in Stoup n. a1646 Wedderburn Voc. (1709) 12.
De Herbis. Paxillus a stople
3. ? = 17th c. Eng. tobacco-stopper (1664) ‘a contrivance for pressing down the tobacco in the bowl of a pipe while smoking’ (OED). 1681 Colvil Whig's Suppl. (1681) i 51.
Some have their faces and their throples All scratched with tobacco stoples 1685 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries LVIII 355.
2 tobacco stappels with stamps on the ends one of silver anther [sic] of brase. Anther broken brass staple
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"Stoppell n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 16 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/stoppell>
