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

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First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

(Se-ware,) Sey-ware, n. Also: sea- and -wair. [e.m.E. sea-ware (1662), OE sǽwár.] Seaweed, esp. of the type used as manure. 1566-70 Buch. Comm. on Virgil Eclogues vii 42.
Alga, sea wair 1596 Murray Early B. Organ. II 241.
And that na wrak nor seywair be intromittit with … quhill the sone be first up in the mornyng ?1549 Monro W. Isles (1961) 87.
He gudes it [sc. peitmosland] weill with sea wair 1637 Retours I Inq. Spec. Inverness (60).
Cum alga maris lie sea wair 1687 Rothesay B. Rec. 433.
The wracks or sea ware being rouped a1688 Wallace Orkney (ed. 2) 72.
The most ordinary mannour they have … is sea-weed, sea-ware, as they call it; and … after storms … the people … divide the wrack according to the proportion of land they have 16… Macfarlane's Geog. Coll. III 2.
Because of the land [of Orkney] is dung'd with sea ware, the ale is sharp 16… Macfarlane's Geog. Coll. III 324.
They guid ther land with sea ware, and lightlie midden mucke 1701 Brand Orkney & Shetl. 78.
[The shelties] will come doun from the hills, when the ebb is in the sea, and eat the sea-ware