Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1721-1932
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BACKSET, n. and v. [′bɑksɛt (noun), bɑk′sɛt (verb)]
1. n.
(1) Anything that checks one's course or causes a relapse: of health, worldly circumstances, vegetation, etc. (In Mod.Eng. but of Sc. origin (N.E.D.).) Gen.Sc.Sc. 1721 R. Wodrow Hist. Sufferings Church of Scot. II. 555:
The people of God have got many Backsets one after another.Sc. 1743 R. Maxwell Select Trans. Soc. of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agric. in Scot. 82:
Even those [weeds] they leave cannot, after such a Backset and Discouragement, come to Seed so late in the Season.Bnff.2 1932:
My leddy's fleein' some heich; she'll get a backset yet.Lnk. 1922 T. S. Cairncross Scot at Hame 54:
I've had back-sets syne, as ony chiel may ha'e.Ayr. 1900 "G. Douglas" House w. the G. Shutters (1901) xiii.:
There's been a backset in Barbie for the last year.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 37–38:
Backset — A setting-back of any thing, or a something that retards: thus, wet weather is a "backset" to the farmer in "the hay and harvest time."Ant. 1898 R.M.Y. in E.D.D.:
Backset is always used of a relapse after illness, never in a moral sense.
(2) Same as Back-tack. Now obs.Sc. 1792 J. Spalding Hist. of the Troubles in Scotland I. 334:
The earl of Marischal . . . having got this tack, sets the same customs in backset, to some well-affected burgesses of Aberdeen.
(3) "A compensation, 'set off'" (A.W. in E.D.D. Suppl. 1905). [(3) not known to our correspondents.]
2. v.
(1) To weary, fatigue, worry.Bnff.2 1932:
I tyauv't wi' the fir-reet till I was backset, an' was forc't t' leav't efter a'.Abd.2 1932:
The crosses I've met wi' the day fairly backset me.
(2) To disgust or upset.Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 216.Abd.2 1932:
Castor-ile fair backsets me.
(3) in ppl.adj. backsettin, discouraging, forbidding, unforthcoming (Ags. 1975). Sc. 1931 J. Bridie The Anatomist ii. i.:
Och, ye're awfu' backsettin' the nicht.
