Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Lose, n. [f. Los a. (Lows a., Loose a.): cf. mod. north. Eng. dial. lowse adj. (= Lows a.), free from apprenticeship. released from one's indentures, having completed the term of apprenticeship to which one was bound, and mod. Sc. dial. lowsin and north. Eng. dial. lowsening, a celebration to mark the end of an apprenticeship, when the apprentice is released from his indentures. Cf. also Lewis.] Put for: A mason who has served his apprenticeship but whose apprenticeship was irregular and who has in consequence not been admitted to the freedom of the craft. — 1674 Vernon Freemasonry in Roxburghshire etc. 62.
[Apprentices] that are lawfully taken, after they come out of their prentisschipe ought not to be named loses but they ought to be named frie men … and all other that are not lawfully takin are to be namit loses Ib.
There ought no frie mason … that taketh his work by great to tak any loses if he can have any frie masons or lawfull taken prentises & if he can have none of them he may take as many as will serve his turne and he ought not to let them know the priviledge of the compass square level and the plum-rule but to sett out their plumming to them … and ought not to let them know any more for putting down the noble science, and if there come any frie mason, he ought to displace one of the loses and put in his brother