A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1375, 1500, 1561-1679
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Tasker, -ar, n. Also: tascar. [Late ME and e.m.E. tasker (15th c.); Task(e n.] A person employed to thresh corn. 1375 Barb. v 318 (C).
He suld a mantill haf, ald and bare [And] a flaill, as he a taskar [E. thresscher] ware c1500 Rowll Cursing 129 (B).
Than ruffy tasker with his flaill Sall beit thame all fra top to taill 1561 Treasurer's Accounts XI 71.
To serche seik and inbring the gudis and geir [of] [etc.] … and to foure tascarris to tresche thair cornis 1562 Knox Ressoning 172.
The wheat is sowen and nourished in the earth: … the tasker, or the foot of the ox, tradeth it out 1567 Treasurer's Accounts XII 81.
To viij taskerris and winderis passand of Edinburgh to thresche furth the cornis pertening to [blank] Hepburne of Gilmertoun c1575 Balfour Pract. 377.
He that is tasker in ony man's barn, ressaving profit fra him thairfoir, may not be witness in his cause c1575 Balfour Pract. 518.
Pure men, sic as taskeris, hyndis, or cottaris 1589 St. A. B. Ct. 20 June.
Jonet Huiesoun relict … off vmquhile William Ȝoule tasker 1607 Edinb. Test. Index II 223.
George Clark, tasker to the Hiltoun of Pitcruquhy 1617 Master of Works Accounts (ed.) II 70.
To the taskeris for thair binding silver 1625 Edinburgh Testaments LIII 119b.
I leive … to the tasker x merkis to the hird x merkis 1656 Edinb. Justices Peace 407.
A tasker is a thresher of corns, of all sort of grains 1656 Edinb. Justices Peace 407.
A tasker … if he be imployed to thresh … he is to have the twenty-fifth part of all such corns, as he shall happen to thresh (which is commonly called the lot of proof) 1656 Edinb. Justices Peace 407.
If he be a tasker in a mains, where he gets constant threshing all the winter-time, then he is to work and serve in all necessary husband-work the whole summer and harvest-time 1679 Peebles B. Rec. II 96.
The thesaurer to caus the taskers, devot casters, or the lyk, to goe to the lyme with thair horseproverb. a1628 Carmichael Prov. No. 1629.
The lairds purse, the greifs horse and the taskers bull and cotters kw wil never be ful
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"Tasker n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/tasker>
