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

Queme, adj. (adv.). Also: quem, queym, quim. [ME (Orm) and e.m.E. cweme, queme, wheme (Destr. Troy), repr. OE *cwéme (cf. Queme v.) or gecwéme.In the later dial. of south. Scotl. as queem and of north. Engl. as wheem, wheam, weme, in various senses (but not in sense 1, which has appar. been obsol. in late ME since the 15th c.).]The appar. erron. variant readings in some of the versions of Doug. Æn. (cf. senses 2 and 3) suggest that the word may have been unfamiliar to some of the copyists.

1. Fit, fitting, suitable, proper, right. Also as adv.In Sc. appar. only in Leg. S.(1) a1400 Legends of the Saints vii 186.
The quek & ded bath to deme On domysday, as hym think queme a1400 Ib. l 29.
Quha sacrifice mad till hym quem a1400 Ib. xxxiv 96.
Quem a1400 Ib. xxxvi 1236.
Queme(2) a1400 Legends of the Saints vi 180.
And ȝe the bidding ȝeme Of the apostil wel & queme

2. Close-fitting. Also as adv.: so as to fit closely; tightly. 1513 Doug. vii x 21.
A hundreth brasyn hespis thame [sc. two ports] claspit queym [Sm., Ruddim. queme] 1513 Ib. viii iv 66.
And with a queym [E. quhynn, 1553 quhine] stane closyt hes the gyn 1513 Ib. ix xii 6.

3. Quiet, still, peaceful. a1400 Legends of the Saints v 324.
Sa thu wil this folk mak quem [: Aristodeme] Sa me quhat thou wil I do 1513 Doug. ix iv 60.
Sowpyt in wyne and sleip baith man and syre At quyet lugyng ȝondyr at thar will; Queym [v.rr. queyne, quhen(e] silens haldis the large feildis still

4. Friendly, intimate, ‘close’. c1680 McWard Contendings 262 (Jam.).
That they shall fall … into an intimacy with the malignant enemies to the work of God and grow quim and cosh with them while they are not only cold toward the truly tender but [etc.]