A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1971 (DOST Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1658-1695
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(Nik-stik,) Nick-, Neckstick, n. [Common in the mod. Sc. and north. Eng. dial.; Nik n. 2.] A notched stick for reckoning, a tally; also, a means of reckoning, more generally, and, a reckoning, an account. —1658 R. Moray Lett. 4 Apr.
My last told you of a paceing instrument. It may serve you for more uses than one; it is one of the best necksticks you ever saw for a greive 1677 Brown Suppl. Dict. Decis. III. 192–3.]
[The general … custom of the whole brewers of Edinburgh is to count with their customers … by two nick-sticks, one kept by either party; and … when they pay the brewers, they get no other discharge but the breaking of the said nick-sticks, which is esteemed equivalent to a discharge 1695 Archaeologia Scotica I. 558.
You are to advert to keep an exact nickstick betwixt you and the coalȝier, of the number of deals of coals received in
