Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†CARMELE, CARAMEILE, Carmel, Carmylie, Carmile, Karemyle, Cor-meille, n. The heath-pea, Lathyrus tuberosus. G. Gordon Flora of Mry. gives carmile and Lightfoot Flora Scottica, carmylie. Wrongly classified by early writers as Orobus tuberosus. B. and H. quotes a spelling karemyle from Wilson Synopsis of British Plants (1744).Sc. 1774 T. Pennant Tour in Scot. 1772 310:
The roots of the orobus tuberosus, the cormeille or carmel of the highlanders, are in high esteem in this and the other [Hebridean] islands: they sometimes chew them, at others make a fermented liquor with them.Sc. 1774 Shaw App. to T. Pennant Tour in Scot. 1769 292–293:
We have one root I cannot but take notice of, which we call carmele: it is a root that grows in heaths and birch woods to the bigness of a large nut, and sometimes four or five roots joined by fibres; it bears a green stalk, and a small red flower . . . I have often seen it dried, and kept for journeys through hills where no provisions could be had. I have likewise seen it pounded and infused, and when yest or barm is put to it, it ferments, and makes a liquor more agreeable and wholesome than mead.Lnk. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XV. 8:
Carameile . . . the orobus tuberosus, being the root so much used in diet by the ancient Caledonians.
