Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

DEER, n. In combs.: 1. deer forest, a large stretch of open land used for deerstalking; 2. deer-hair, deer's-, (1) the scaly-stalked club-rush, Scirpus caespitosus (Sc. 1777 J. Lightfoot Flora Scotica II. App. 1080, deer's-; 1808 Jam., deer(s)-; Bwk. 1853 G. Johnston Botany E. Borders 203; Dmf. 1894 J. Shaw in Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 146, deer's; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.); also found in Nhb. dial.; (2) the scaly-stalked spike-rush, Eleocharis caespitosa (Highl. 1866 B. and H., deer('s)-; Frf. 1848 W. Gardiner Flora of Frf. 209); 3. deer horns, a kind of fancy cake, often made in the shape of a deer's horns (Sc. 1929 F. M. McNeill Sc. Kitchen 184); 4. deer's puddings, a species of mealy pudding made in deer tripe skins (Ib. 204).1. Sc. 1969 Iain Crichton Smith Collected Poems (1992) 86:
One side of the landslope's
bright and delightful
and the Deer-forest's landscape
causes eyes to be grateful.Sc. 1974 W. Condry Woodlands ix. 119:
The term 'deer forest' can deceive the uninitiated. Despite the name a Scottish deer forest is not woodland but an area of treeless moorland and mountain, the typical habitat of red deer in Scotland.Sc. 1982 Willie Orr Deer Forests, Landlords and Crofters 2:
Today deer forests may be devoid of timber and reach to the snow-covered tops of the highest hills. Yet the apparent misnomer is a valuable reminder of the fact that the creation of deer forests in the nineteenth century in many cases involved a reversion to a former status.Sc. 2004 Sunday Herald 25 Jul 22:
Although it's not a high hill, Carn Chuinneag is certainly taller than any of its immediate neighbours in the high plateaux of the Easter Ross deer forests. As I climbed higher I became more and more aware of the bare wildness of this particular corner of Scotland.em.Sc. 1996 Hamish Henderson in Timothy Neat The Summer Walkers: Travelling People and Pearl-Fishers in the Highlands of Scotland 69:
She reacted very badly to what seemed like and endless expanse of peat-hag, barren deer forest and bleak distant mountains; ...2. (1) Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality i.:
Moss, lichen and deer-hair are fast covering these stones to cleanse which had been the business of his life.Sc. 1890 H. Stephens Bk. Farm IV. 437:
In April and May, “deerhair” becomes a standard plant.(2) Rxb. 1890 in Proc. Bwk. Nat. Club XII. 473:
There were [in Liddesdale] plots of Eriophorum or “Moss-crops”; Deer's Hair (Eleocharis caespitosa) was plentiful.