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

Scal(e, n.² Also: skale, scaill, skail(e, skaill, skal; skell; schale. [ME and e.m.E. skale (Chaucer), scale (14th c.), OF escale (1190 in Larousse), escaille (1260 in Godefroy), ultim. f. Gmc. *skalja.]Chiefly pl.

1. A scale on the skin of a fish or reptile, etc. Only pl., the scaly surface of a fish or reptile's skin. Cf. S(c)hell n. 12.(a) a1500 Colk. Sow i 129.
The fische with thair scalis 1513 Doug. xi xiv 69.
The serpent … Hyr sprutlyt skalys vpset grysly to se 1531 Bell. Boece I xlv.
Sum of thaim [sc. fish] armit with schellis; sum with hard skalis 1549 Compl. 37/18.
I beheld the pretty fische … vitht … there skalis lyik the brycht siluyr ?1549 Monro W. Isles (1961) 77.
Ane kind of fish the quantitie and shape of ane salmond without skaills(b) a1400 Leg. S. xxviii 413.
Tha scayland schalis [sc. of a dragon] set vp rath

b. Scale-fish, fish having scales [e.m.E. (1601)]. 1612 Bk. Rates (Halyb.) 304.
Scale [pr. seale] fish 1696 Retours I Inq. Spec. Elgin et Forres (178).
Salmonis piscatione de tugnet, tam lie reidfish quam skailfish intra fluxum maris

2. After Acts ix 18: Blindness represented as a covering of scales over the eyes. a1400 Leg. S. ii 610.
And with that word fel fra his ene Mirknes as tha skalis had bene And he that sicht thane gat 1611-57 Mure True Crucifixe 972.
The skailes of darknesse which our eyes be-night He doth remove and maks vs clearly see

3. A thin plate of wood or metal used in making or ? ornamenting, scabbards or the hilts of swords or knives. See also Scalit ppl. adj. b. 1573–4 Elgin Rec. I 144.
For skaillis of scalbertis 1598 Conv. Burghs II 39.
The gros wairis [coming from France] … sic as vynigar [etc.], … schuellis, and suord skaillis 1605 Edinb. Test. in Whitelaw Sc. Arms Makers 296.
Ane 100 suord skaillis

4. A particle of scaly or scurfy skin, scurf, dandruff.Cf. Scal(l n., with which there may have been some confusion.(a) 1587 Carmichael Etym. 26.
Furfures, skails 1595 Duncan App. Etym.
Furfures, pl., scaills of the heade(b) 1614 Laing MSS 139.
Ane Indian kome to taik skellis owt of Oncies heid(c) a1646 Wedderburn Voc. (1709) 13.
De Morbis. Porrigo, scales in the head

b. Applied to the lichen Lecanora tartarea, so-called because of its scurfy appearance. 1633 (1711) Sibbald's Orkn. & Shetl. 25.
The muscus crustæ aut lichenis modo saxis adnascens stavus, which they call a skal, from the resemblance it hath to that