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: 1500-1680
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0]
Tout, Towt, n.1 Also: towit. [Tout v.1] The sound of a horn. Chiefly in proverb. expressions a new (auld) tout in an auld (new) horne, etc. an old idea expressed as something new.(1) 15… Jervise Land of the Lindsays 291.
But mind … Jean Lyon, for her auld tout will make you a new horn 1593 Misc. Abbotsf. C. 216.
I have na new thing to writt excepe a new tout in ane aulde horne as they saye a1598 Ferg. Prov. MS No. 125.
Ane new tout in ane old horne a1628 Carmichael Prov. No. 934.
It is ane auld towt in a new horne c1680 W. Row Blair 540.
About this time the Council emitted a proclamation against conventicles, which was a new towit in an old horn(2) 1626 M. P. Brown Suppl. Decis. I 135.
The want of three touts was alleged against the horning. But the Lords sustained it to be proven by witnesses 1661 Hay Fleming Six Saints I 361.
The tout of a horn, over the Cross of Edinburgh, blew the greater part of the ministers of the Church of Scotland out of their pulpits
