A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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About this entry:
First published 2002 (DOST Vol. XII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1568-1646
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Wes(c)hin, Was(c)hen, ppl. adj. Also: weschen, washine. [e.m.E. weshyn (1483), washen (1525-34).] Washed, cleansed; having undergone washing in manufacture, etc. Also fig.Also with preceding adverb ill-, new-, weel-.1568 Edinburgh Testaments I 212b.
Plane weschin gluffis for wemen … price of the pair thre s. 1575 Edinburgh Testaments III 364b.
Weschin gluiffis for men & wemen price of the dosane foure frankis a1598 Ferg. Prov. No. 864.
There is nothing so crouse as a new washen louce [1706 loufe] 1587-99 Hume 101/47.
Til eit meat with weschen or vnweschen hands 1609 Hilderstoun Silver Mines I 165.
For leiding of lxviij loadis of weshin mettell … to the storehous 1617 Aberd. B. Rec. II 350.
Weele washine and weele smellit naprie 1628 Edinburgh Testaments LIV 282 b.
Sevin pund wecht waschen woll ȝairnefig. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1894) 313.
Ye are bound to lift Christ on high, who hath given you eyes to discern the devil now coming out in his whites … well washen with fair pretences 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1894) 449.
There are many ways … how to shift Christ with some ill-washen and foul distinctions 1646 Rutherford Lett. (1894) 637.
I know many fair and washen ones stand now in white before the throne, who were once as black as I am
