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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.

BILGET, n.1 Also billgat. “A billet for a soldier's quarters” (Sc. 1911 S.D.D. Add.). Also attrib. Sc. 1712 Burgh Rec. Gsw. (1908) 485:
The magistrats enact and ordaine that James Govane, merchant, shall be free of paying money to the poor by billgats. Edb. 1747-62 Observations by W.S.s concerning Poors Rates 15:
They considered that each Inhabitant's Circumstances enabled him to afford from Year to Year, they signified this to him by a Billet (whence this contribution got the name of Bilget-Money). . . . Within these three Weeks, they have declared that there is no further occasion for levying the Bilget-money.

[Prob. a corrupt form of billet. O.Sc. billiet, billȝett, (1) a communion card, (2) a billeting order, 17th cent. Fr. and mod.Eng. billet.  The variant forms Bilgate, Bilget, n.2, Billgate, all point semantically to derivation from billet in one or other of its senses but the -g- is anomalous and no satisfactory explanation offers itself. See note to Billgate. The -ȝ- of O.Sc. may have come to be read as -g-, assuming that the word began in learned rather than colloquial use.]

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