Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Put, Putt, n.² Also: Pit(t n.² [Only Sc.; ? f. Put v. for ‘a thing which pushes or thrusts out’.]

1. A piece of masonry projecting from a wall; ‘a short length of wall at right angles to the main section of walling’; a buttress. 1501 Prot. Bk. J. Foular 11.
To serve the said Johne and his land with the pend and put of his foreyet 1512 Ib. 150.
In the forsaid wal of his said land adjunit to the said est gavil of the said Helene land lintale rabits soile and put for a loft dur [etc.] 1512 Old Ross-shire II 56.
Putting in the said syde-wall [of the foreland of an Edinburgh tenement] endis of dormentis & geistis cuppling & puttis of pendis 1529–30 Edinb. Guild Ct. 15 Feb.
Till put & rest in the said gavill the endis of twa gistis & als to haif the endis of the puttis of thair bras of thar est syd wall in the said gavill 1657 Lanark B. Rec. 159.
To raise the said wall … and to pend over the sex fute beyond the wall to be buildit within, and to put up thrie putes to the south wall for ane flesh merkat 1678 Edinb. B. Rec. X 339.
Ane enterie to the first storie of his houss betwixt the north cheik of the putt of the pend … and the turnepyck … to … Mowtray his hous

2. a. A buttress of a bridge. 1605 Reg. Privy C. VII 741.
[The New Brig on the water of Leyth being very far decayed in the] pend [and] puttis [thereof] 1609 Ib. VIII 336.
[The bridge of Leswade] … decayit [as well in] the pend as in the puttis 1642 Edinb. B. Rec. VIII 6.
The south putt or stool of the said bridge

b. A jetty or stone buttress projecting from the bank of a river.‘For altering the direction of the current’ and ‘for preventing the destruction of the bank; often also used for fixing salmon nets on’ (SND, s.v. Putt n.² 2). In the mod. dial. recorded only f. Selkirkshire and Roxburghshire. 1656 Peebles B. Rec. II 35.
The thesaurer to caus cast Edderstoun burne, … and make a putt at the eist werk nixt John Newtones hous

3. Appar., some metal fitting of a gate. (? Cf. Putstop n.) 1611 M. Works Acc. (ed.) I 338.
Thomas Jerdone smythes count. … To the same yets twa puts and foure stapillis weyeing xxx lib.