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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
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.

BENSEL(L), Bensil(l), Benzel, n. and v. [′bɛns(ɪ)l, ′bɛnzəl]

1. n.

(1) Force; violent or sudden movement; violence (of storm, fire, etc.); a blow.Sc. 1819 J. Rennie St Patrick I. vi. 88:
The hettest bensil o' the sin in the lang days o' simmer can har'ly thow a hue o' the snaw.Bnff.⁴, Abd.⁶ 1914:
She cam' ben wi' a bensel.Abd. 1788 J. Skinner Christmass Bawing in Caled. Mag. iv.:
The hurry-burry now began, Was right well worth the seeing, Wi' bensils bauld tweish man and man, Some getting fa's, some gieing.Edb. 1824 J. Burnet ed. Royal Sc. Minstrelsy 206:
And now, we'll bang the bensel bauld, Frae a' the airts that bla'.s. and w.Sc. 1825 Jam.²:
Bensel o' a fire, a strong fire.Kcb. 1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders xlvii.:
Which the starving wretches had built to keep them from the icy bensil of the snow wind.w.Dmf. 1925 W. A. Scott Vern. of Mid-Nithsdale in Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 18:
Look at they beas' hoo they stan' wi' their backs tae the benzel.Dmf. 1822 A. Cunningham Trad. Tales I. 152:
And yet it would be a sore matter to my conscience to turn out a face so young . . . to the bensel of the midnight blast.Slk. 1820 J. Hogg Winter Ev. Tales II. 213:
He stopped not to rap, and he staid not to call, With ram-race he cleared at a bensil the wall.

(2) “Transferred to a place exposed to the violence of a storm; and directly opposed to bield, n. Hence the phrase, Bensil o' the brae, that part or point of an eminence which is most exposed to the weather” (Fif. 1825 Jam.²). This usage is still known in Per. and Fif. 1974, up o' the bensil, in a high exposed site.

(3) A severe scolding or rebuke.Abd. 1787 A. Shirrefs Jamie and Bess 18:
The bensil I'll bear, for why sud I fear?Dmb. 1860 W. Watt Poems 90:
A gleg, light finger'd damsel, Wha, for the rich prize, thought she'd risk the law's bensell.

2. v.

(1) tr. “To beat or thrash soundly” (Bnff.⁴ 1933; Rxb. 1802 J. Sibbald Chron. Sc. Poetry, Gloss.; Watson W.-B. (1923) 54).

(2) intr. †(a) “To dash, beat” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 54).s.Sc. 1856 H. S. Riddell St Matthew vii. 27:
The win's blew, an' bensellet agayne the hous, an' it fell.

†ppl.adj. bensilling, harsh (applied to wind).Kcb. 1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders vii.:
I saw him swing in chains on Leith sands, very well tarred, and the flesh dried flat to the bones with the bensilling wind off the Baltic lands.

‡(b) “To walk caperingly or struttingly” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 54). pr.p. bensellin. “Going about making a noise in the street and at house doors” (Mry.¹ 1925).

(c) To press forward.Abd. 1931 R. L. Cassie in Abd. Press and Jnl. (11 Feb.):
We'll bensel on, we'll breenge awa, We wunna berge owre muckle; Fat tho' the bairns wunna ca, We'll please the auler puckle.