Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1715-1773, 1826, 1896-1929
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‡DOER, n. Sc. usage: an agent, factor; one entrusted with another's business affairs. Also daer. Gen.Sc., obsol. Also in Eng. dial.Sc. 1721–22 R. Wodrow Sufferings I. 345:
His Brother Lord Haltoun came in to be his great Doer in Council.Sc. 1737 M. MacDonald quoted in Old-lore Misc. (1936) X. ii. 50:
I was to go and see my brother to Valleyfield, where he is presently a Doer on General Preston's estate.Sc. 1773 Invercauld Records (S.C. 1901) 25:
Missive by the Right Honourable The Earl of Fife addressed to Mr William Thom, Advocate in Aberdeen, Doer to James Farquharson of Invercauld.Sc. 1909 Colville 72:
Real estate is mortgaged under a bond or disposition in security, the agent in the transaction is the doer or haver.Bnff. 1715 Ann. Bnff. (S.C.) I. 114:
That every heretor . . . or their factors or doers . . . raise money among the tennents.Fif. 1929 A. Taylor Bitter Bread 157:
I'm mair at hame wi' the gentry's doers than wi' the gentry themsel's.Ayr. 1826 Galt Lairds ix.:
Your niece, she'll have doers, . . . and the doers will be constrained by law to do their duty as executioners.Ayr. 1896 H. Johnston Dr Congalton i.:
"He'll be a daer" (trustee), the enginedriver concluded.Gall. a.1773 in Gallov. Annual (1928) 78:
For several years he had employed John Mackenzie, then town clerk of Dumfries, as his local procurator or "doer," for there were no solicitors in those days.
Hence doer-in-ordinary, idem.Kcb. 1896 S. R. Crockett Grey Man xxx.:
I got warrant . . . to be doer-in-ordinary for the young man James.
