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: 1499-1565, 1690
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Tharf(e, Therf, adj. Also: thraf, threfe. [ME and e.m.E. þeorff (Orm), therf (Cursor M.), tharf (c1400), tharfe (1483), OE þeorf. Cf. MDu. derf, ON þjarfr.] Of bread, etc.: Unleavened. Also in fig. context. — a1500 Henr. Fab. 283.
Thraf [Bann. Threfe] caikkis … scho spairit nocht Aboundantlie about hir for to deill c1520-c1535 Nisbet Matth. xxvi 17.
In the first day of therf laues [P. therf looues] the discipilis com to Jesu, and said, [etc.] c1520-c1535 Nisbet 1 Cor. v 7, 8.
Clenge ye out the auld sourdauche, that ye be new springing togiddire, as ye ar therf. For Crist offrit is oure pasche. Tharfore ete we … nouthir in sourdauche of malice and of wawartnes, bot in therf thingis of cleirnes and of treuth 1565 Gathering of the Halie Signes 16.
He restorit alswa the Jowisse cerimonie of tharfe bread, that is to say, without leuen 1690 Curiosities Charta Chest 67.
For a farl of tharf [ed. sharf] brad … [4 s.]
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"Tharf adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/tharfe>
