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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.

Outer, Outter, a. Also: -ir, owtir, -yr, owtter. [Late ME. outter (15th c.), outer (15th c.), e.m.E. outer (1611).New compar. formed on Out adv. But some of the 16th and ? early 17th c. Sc. spellings are perh. merely orthographic variants of the older Ut(t)er a.]

Outer; utter. = Ut(t)er a., in various senses.(1) 1513 Doug. x. vii. 1.
Bot quhen that Pallas at ane owtyr syde [L. parte ex alia] Persavyt hys Arcad army 1602 Dundonald Par. Rec. 7.
Betuix the outtir half and the inner half of hir kirtill a1658 Durham Commandments (1675) 105.
The outer-half … being a great deal larger then the inner 1658 Hunter Fam. P. 60.
[At the] outter ȝett of the maner place of Hunterstoune 1696 Galloway P. 26 May.
Quhich owtir dyk(2) 1672 Sinclair Hydrostaticks 299.
There is an outter-wheel moved, as other milns are, by the water of the river 1692 Musselburgh 38.
Ane outter wheale to be … provydit for the sea milne(3) 1635 Glasgow B. Rec. II. 31.
The glas windows, both of outter kirk and quheir 1647 Ib. 123.
Ane pairt of the outterhous of the grit kirk(4) 1662 Acts Sederunt ii. 85.
All causes in the outter-house Ib. 86. 1672 Acts VIII. 81/1. 1674 in Brunton & Haig 404. 1684 Erskine Jrnl. 36. 1685 Bk. Old Edinb. C. XI. 41.
In the owtter hous(5) 1676 Cunningham Diary 78.
To the boys that keep the Parliament House outter barr(6) 1593 J. Somerville Mem. I. 493.
Whom for they sall answear, sell and dispone therupon yearly to the outter availl 1693 Glasgow Chart. II. 247.
Whereby that … place is like to be brought to outer ruin