Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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.

(Saw,) Sawe, Salve, v.² Also: save, saif, sauf. [ME and e.m.E. sallferm (Orm), salue(n (Ancr. R.), sauuin (a1240), saue (c1400), sauf (Lydgate), OE salfian, sealfian.Some examples may properly derive from Sav(e v.]

tr. a. To anoint with salve. b. To heal, cure (a person, or his hurt). Also absol. c. fig. To remedy, make good, smooth over, put to rights (something amiss, a difficulty, source of disharmony, or the like).a. a1400 Leg. S. xvi 118.
For that tyme men in custum had The gret heit of the sone that bad Bathis til oyse & vneyment To sawe thame [L. unguentis et balneis utebantur] that thai var nocht schentb. a1400 Leg. S. xxxiii 320.
A quyk wel sprang & sic dring gef That al seknes it can sawe [L. omnes languidos sanat] a1500 Henr. Test. Cress. 411.
Thair is na salue may saif or sound [Anderson save or sound, Ch. saif thé of] thy sair c1475 Wall. ii 278.
Rycht couertly thai kepe him in that caiff Him for to sawe so secretlye thai mycht 1560 Rolland Seven S. 9892.
Gif thair may be found ony defence Help or remeid that may ȝour seiknes saue [: haue](b) a1570-86 Maitl. F. 252/12.
Albeit thow sich ane thousand syth It will nocht sauf thé of thy sair Nor ȝit remeid thé of thy cair(c) 1581-1623 James VI Poems II 69/8.
Bot ye [sc. the queen] my onlie medicinar remaines And easilie … May salue my sores and mitigatt my painesabsol. ?1438 Alex. i 1079.
Thy skirming Geuis to vs all recomforting Efter thy dint na sawe may sauec. 1560 Cal. Sc. P. I 511.
[It imports me greatly that the intelligence began] betwix ws [may continue]. … I made yow some overture at Londone how to salve all matiers 1586 Rait & Cameron King James's Secret 77.
Onles speciall remeid was providit in expres termes to salve that mater, that it culd not faill to be in tyme predudiciall