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 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Bowcaill, -kaill, n. Also: boll-. [f. bow Boll n.² (?), Cale n.] Cabbage. Also attrib. with plant, seid, stok. 1506 Treas. Acc. III. 370.
Ane pund bowcail seid 1544 Elgin Rec. I. 80.
Gilbert Kemp vas acquit of the claym of lvi s. of bow caill 15.. Berdok 6.
The grit kin[g] of Babilon, Berdok, That dwelt in symmer in till ane bowkaill stok 1601 Glasgow B. Rec. I. 226.
Selling and transporting of bow kaill and vtheris vivars outwith the towne 1661 Lanark B. Rec. 187.
Jonnet Wessie [to stand] during the said tym with ane bow kaill stock [on her back] 1681 Foulis Acc. Bk. 75.
To Robert Rorie, gardiner, to buy … 1000 bowcail plants 1689 Reg. Privy C. XIV. 559.
Anent the … threttie thousand bowkaill which might have bein sold at four shilling per hundred 1691 Corshill Baron Ct. 185.
The … destroying of his boll and reid kaill