A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Lochaber-ax(e, n. Also: Lochabir, Lochw(h)aber, -quhaber, (Loquabor), and aix. A variety of long-handled battle-axe, described as having a single elongated blade, appar. originating in the Highland district of Lochaber.(1) 1501 Treas. Acc. II. 111.
[For ane batale ax maid of Lochabir fasoun … xiiij s. J. Major Hist. v. iii.
Lanceis fractis, bipennibus Lethensibus & securibus Lochaber optime scindentibus, [etc.] … decertant Ib.]
Ex una parte solum securis Lochaber qua Scoti sylvestres boreales utuntur scindit1618 J. Taylor (Water Poet) Penniless Pilgr. E 4 b.
Their weapons are long bowes and forked arrowes, swords and targets, harquebusses, muskets, durks and Loquhaboraxes 1621 Bentinck Dornoch 190.
[The Gordons were well equipped for the fray, being armed with] bowis, swordis, targes, lochquhaber axis, hagbutis and pistolettis 1639 Baillie II. 442.
Bringing … good swords and lances, or Lochwaber axes, and such provision of money and victuals for ane moneth 1643 Acts VI. (1819) 43/2.
That they [the foot soldiers] be furnisched with halbert, lochwaber axes or Jedburgh staffes and swordis 1643 1st Stat. Acc. Scotl. V. 16.
[Only fourscore men could be furnished with] muscaths, pickes, gunnis, halberds, densaixes or Lochaber aixes 1665 Reg. Privy C. 3 Ser. II. 34.
The said John Lyon … came to the said house with a Lochaber ax seiking for the compleaners lyfe 1678 Wodrow Hist. Sufferings (1828) II. 420. 1681 Colvil Whig's Suppl. I. 6.
I did see the out-law Whiggs … Some with a Lochaber ax, Resolv'd to give Dalzell his paiks 1682 Irvine Nomenclatura 201.
The coast thereof [the Rhinns of Galloway] … very much representeth the edge of a Lochaberaxe, a weapon much used by our remote ancestors before the invention of gunns Ib. 215.
Securibus pugnare to feight with Lochaber-axes; which is like an halbert; only the upper part thereof was armed with an axe, above an eln long, narrow below but broader in the middle, which run to a sharp point, edged on both sides, the two parts of this axe had a socket on the back, wherein the wood hand was contained, and all the rest was tyed with iron and armed at the lower end with a strong steal point(2) a1598 Ferg. Prov. (1641) 10.
Of fleyit persons … He looks like a Lochwhaber axe a1628 Carmichael Prov. No. 1818.
Ye luke lyke a Lochquhaber axe
