A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1426, 1489-1516, 1584-1662
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Bene, Bein, n. Also: beine, bevn(e, been, beane; pl. bennis. [ME. bene, OE. béan.]
1. A bean; a bean-plant or stalk.1426 Acts I. 13/2 (a ferlot of peis & xl benis). a1500 Henr. Fab. 321 (to gnaw benis and peis). 1490 Irland Mir. MS. 341 b (to et benys and pork). c1500-c1512 Dunb. Tua Mar. W. 128 (nought worth a bene). c1500-c1512 Id. xlvii. 57 (I sett nocht by a bene hir bewty). 1513 Doug. iv. Prol. 155 (opynyon deyr of a boryt beyn). 1516 Treasurer's Accounts V. 69 (beinis and meill). a1585 Polwart Flyt. 276 (sum buklit on ane bwnwyd and sum on ane bene). 1594 Edinb. B. Rec. V. 113 (the Inglis beynes and peyis). c 1620 Liber Dryburgh 370 (the teind peis and beins).
2. King of Bene, the man in whose portion of the Twelfth-night cake the bean was found. Cf. Bane n.31.1489 Treasurer's Accounts I. 127.
Item, on Vphaly da, … to the King of Bene, … xviij s. 1496 Ib. 270.
Item, to Jhonne Goldsmyth, … for his expens quhen he was King of Beyne1502 Ib. II. 131.
3. Attrib. with strae, strake (= stalk).1595 Duncan Appendix.
Fabale, beane-strae 1662 Criminal Trials III. 608.
Quhan we wold ryd, we tak windle-strawes, or been strakes, and put them betwixt our foot
