A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1559-1560, 1682-1699
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1]
Subornation, -acioun, n. [e.m.E. subornacion (1528), -tion (1579-80), F. subornation (1310 in Larousse), f. suborner Suborn(e v. Cf. med. L. subornation- (c1443 in Latham) subornation, instigation.] a. The action of suborning or inducing a person, by bribery, to commit a crime; also, an instance of this. b. The condition of having been suborned, as a criminal charge. —a. 1682 Fountainhall Decis. I 194.
How easy were it for a knavish messenger, upon the pannel's subornation, to leave out of the pannel's copy the most important witnesses, so that the pannel shall be cleansed for lack of probation 1694 Fountainhall Decis. I 642.
A pursuer should be instructus, and know his own probation, and where he craves a new one, there is fear of subornation 1699 Fountainhall Decis. II 51.
Yet the giving of it [sc. witnesses' expenses] by way of pre-advance is a subornation, and dangerous novelty, especially with common people —b. 1559–60 St. A. Kirk S. 25.
Margaret Stevin … purges hirself of subornacioun
