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

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First published 1983 (DOST Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Ounce, Ouns, n.¹ Also: owns, onc(e, ons. [ME. and e.m.E. ounce (14–15th c.), own(s)ce (1463), (a) nouns, (a) nonsse (15th c.), oonce, oince, ownch (16th c.), var. of Unce n.] An ounce, the unit of weight. Also comb. in ounce-weight.As plur. after numerals etc., generally without inflection. c1650 J. Hope in Cochran-Patrick Coinage I. lxxviii.
So the ounce Troy English wilbe havier than the ounce of Antwerp by [etc.] 1686 Mackenzie Observ. 118.
Four drop-weight is a quarter of an ounce, four quarters make an ounce-weight, eight ounces is a merk-weight, two merk-weight is a pound-weight Ib. 119.
The weights … us'd by apothecaries … eight draghms maketh an ounce, sixteen ounces maketh a pound, the medicinal pound is twelve ounces … the twelve ounces troy weight of England weigh twelve ounces three drop twenty one grains Scottish weightsing. 1463–4 Sc. Eccles. Soc. I. 219.
Twa chandleris off siluer the qwhilkis weis twa trois pond and halff an owns 1498 Halyb. 216.
A sengnet of syluer weand 1 owns 4 ingillis 1502 Ib. 268.
A kyrtyll belt vas sald xxvii sturis the ons 1554 Cochran-Patrick Coinage I. 76 (see Lio(u)n n. 2 b).
Once c 1590 Hopetoun MS. in Cochran-Patrick Coinage I. 98 (see Lio(u)n n. 2 b).
Ounce 1669–70 Irvine Mun. II. 267.
½ a onc of tobacco and 4 pyps 1680 Cunningham Diary 115.
A ounce of threedplur. 1496 Halyb. 25.
6 syluer pecis weyand 5 mark 7 ½ ons 1509–10 Edinb. Hammermen 68.
xiij ovnce siluer 1533 Wigtown B. Ct. 277 a.
For x ovns of seyd 1574–5 Haddington Treas. Acc. 2.
For half stane of yrin v owns 1597 Skene Verb. S. s.v. Bvllion.
The last of saipe, ij ounce — 1661 Acts VII. 253/2.
Lamb skines ilk tuo thousand tuo ounces [bullion]comb. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1891) 461.
God send me if it were but the relics and leavings, or an ounce-weight or two, of His matchless love Ib. 491.