A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1399-1500, 1567-1568
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Pureté, Purté, n. Also: puretee, purtye. [Late ME pourte (once, c1420), e.m.E. poorety (once, 1589), otherwise appar. only Sc., AN poreté (c1240 in Wartburg) (also mod. F. dial. pōrtę, pôretai, etc., in Wartburg): cf. Pur(e)teth and Poverté.In the mod. Sc. dial. as puirta etc.]
Poverty. = Poverté n.Also personified. a1400 Legends of the Saints xxvi 766.
Purte me in sic assay Has set that [etc.] 14.. Quoniam Attachiamenta c. 59.
At the sellar of that land sauld it thru cause of purte c1460 Regimine Principum 182 (Marchm.).
Pure folk … levand al, for purte may nocht bide a1499 Contemplacioun of Synnaris 1314 (Harl.).
Sen weill and wa here, riches and puretee [: occupye, aduersitee, estymye; Asl. purete] … bayth slydis as ane slumber 1490 Irland Mir. I 46/33.
Contempland the purete and wrechitnes of this waurld a1500 Buke of the Sevyne Sagis 877.
Quhill of his gudis he maid ane end And fell agane in gret purete a1500 Ib. 2692, 2730. a1568 Bannatyne MS 81a/47.
Thay passit by with handis plett With purtye fra I wes ourtanepersonif. a1500 Bernardus 217.
A wyfe he sal hafe, purte til hir name, And a sone als callit scorne and schame
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"Pureté n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/purete>
