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.
Quotation dates: 1643-1700+
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Sconce, Skonce, n.2 (ME and e.m.E. skonse ‘a lantern or candlestick with a screen to protect the light from the wind, and a handle to carry it by (c1392), a bracket-candlestick, usually of brass or iron, to fasten against a wall (c1450)’, (OED), aphetic f. F. esconse lantern, also a hiding-place, L. sconsa, shortened f. L. abscons-, p.p. stem of abscondere. Cf. OIcel. skons lantern, candlestick (1397 in a church inventory.) — 1643 Edinburgh Testaments LX 279b.
Twa hand sconces estimat boith to xiij s. iiij d. … ane meikle wand skonces pryce thairof iiij lib. 1651 Buccleuch Mun. II 291.
Ane wand skonce — 1683 Inv. in Donibristle Mun. (Earl of Moray's MSS.) 1 (9–10 May).
Thrie guilded sconcess without socketts 1683 Ib. 17.
Tuo gilded sconces without noses 1715 Household Bk. Gr. Baillie 184.
For the stair lantron 6 s., 2 stair sconces 7 s.
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"Sconce n.2". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/sconce_n_2>
