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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

HAUSE, n., v. Also ha(w)ss, haws(e), haus(s), haas, ha'se, hauze; †hals(e); erron. haise (Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 334). [hǫ(:)s, hɑ(:)s]

I. n. 1. The neck (Sc. 1755 S. Johnson Dict., hass; Ayr. 1789 D. Sillar Poems Gl., haws, 1923 Wilson Dial. Burns; Ork. 1929 Marw., hass; I.Sc., Ags., Peb., Gall., Dmf. 1956). Now mostly arch. Also fig., the neck of a drinking vessel.Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 19:
She ne'er gae in a Lawin fause, Nor Stoups a Froath aboon the Hause.
Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality vii.:
To be sent to Heaven wi' a Saint Johnstone's tippit about my hause.
Ayr. 1824 A. Crawford Tales Grandmother 91:
The lire upon her taperin' hawse Wad match the snaw on Benachie.
Ags. 1887 Arbroath Guide (22 Jan.) 4:
Syne clean cat-ma up to the hauses [They] coup i' the bog.
Ork. 1904 Dennison Orcadian Sk. 12:
I'll lay him deed as seur as his heed's on his hass.
Sc. 1928 J. G. Horne Lan'wart Loon 25:
She'd fain ha'e thrawn his bonnie hass, An' backlins hotcht in ower the bass.

2. The throat, the gullet (Kcb.4 1900, hass; Sh. 1914 Angus Gl., hass; Mry.1 1922; ‡Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B., hass, hause; Ork., Bnff., Ags. 1956). Adj. ‡hawsy, wheezy, “throaty” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).Sc. 1697 W. Cleland Poems 22:
He got of Beer a full bowl Glass, Which got bad Passage at his Hasse.
Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 236:
Like Butter in the black Dog's Ha'se. That is, past Recovery.
Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (1925) 11:
O Muse, be kind, and dinna fash us . . . Wi' Highland whisky scour our hawses, And gar us sing.
Dmf. 1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun 32:
Parch'd up wi' heat, nae caller streams To weet their hasses.
Ayr. 1830 C. Lockhart Poems 107:
Syne, oil our hauses wi' a gillie O' what ye please.
s.Sc. 1857 H. S. Riddell Matthew xviii. 28:
He laid hans on him, an' tuik him bie the hass, sayin', Paye me that thou awest.
Ork. 1908 Old-Lore Misc. I. viii. 323:
Am fared hid'll set doon i' 'is hass an' be a crewal.
Abd. 1924 Swatches o' Hamespun 74:
Extra strong they are, an' gran for an ull hoast, or a bit kittlin o' the hass.
Gsw. 1933 F. Niven Mrs Barry 200:
“Let's see your hause, laddie.” Neil was puzzled. “Let's see your throat.”
m.Sc. 1979 William J. Tait in Joy Hendry Chapman 23-4 (1985) 37:
A barrage o birdsang opens up,
Blackies an mavises burstin their haases
Slk. 1985 Walter Elliot Clash-ma-clavers 8:
Noo Doug Scott, the fencer, was gassed on the Somme
Ye could tell it as sin as he spoke
For the hass o his thrapple was burnt near awa
An his voice was a whusperin croak
Edb. 2004:
Ah've goat a terrible sair throat - richt in the hass o the thrapple.

Phrs.: (1) clap (klap) of the hause, see Clap, n.1, 6.; (2) pap of the hause, the uvula (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Mry.1 1925; ‡Cai., m.Lth., Bwk., w. and sm.Sc., Slk. 1956); (3) to gae doun (into) the wrang hause, of food, etc.: to go down the wrong way, to choke (Cai. 1902 E.D.D.; I.Sc., Cai., Kcb., Dmf. 1956); (4) a spark in one's hause, an addiction to drink. See Spark.(2) Sc. 1716 J. Moncrief Poor Man's Physician 94:
If the Uvula or Pap of the Halse be over lax, or fallen down, first dry it with Decoction of Virga aurea.
Sc. 1874 A. Hislop Sc. Anecdotes 28:
There was an unco kittlin' in the paup o' his hass.
Lth. 1945 Weekly Scotsman (14 April):
A wee bit “kittle at the pap o' the hass.”
(3) Sc. 1808 Jam.:
When a particle of food or drop of liquid goes into the windpipe, it is vulgarly said it has gone into the wrang hause.
Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch (1839) xix.:
I discovered in a moment that she was suffocated, the foul air having gone down her wrong hause.
Ayr. 1890 J. Service Notandums v.:
Something gaed doon the wrang hass, and sic a fit o' hoastin cam on.

3. A gap or opening (Lth. 1825 Jam.). Hence, the hass of a plough, the space between the mould-board and the beam (Ib.).

4. A defile, a narrow passage between hills, the head of a pass (Sc. 1825 Jam., hawse; Twd. Ib., hass; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Kcb.2 c.1925; Dmf. 1925 Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 29, hass). Now used reg. in place-names on Sc. Border and in Eng. Lake District as the name for a narrower connecting ridge between two heights on a watershed.Sc. 1822 J. Wilson Lights & Shadows 114:
A storm is coming down from the Cairn-brae-hawse, and we shall have nothing but a wild night.
Dmf. 1874 R. Reid Moorland Rhymes 191:
Atween and Mennock-hass There is a cosy biel.
Rxb. 1874 Trans. Hawick Arch. Soc. 210:
Like a gigantic castle to guard the “hass of the hope.”
Kcb. 1895 Crockett Bog Myrtle 295:
Over there by the halse o' the pass.
Kcb.4 1900:
Hass is also applied to land, such as the land where a valley between two hills ends and opens out on to the plain. The neck of the valley is called the Hass. A farm here in such a position is called “The Hass.”
s.Sc. 1935 Border Mag. (Sept.) 130:
Where Dumfriesshire marches with Roxburghshire, . . . we struck off to the right up through the “hass,” keeping Tudhope on the right.
Peb. 1946 Peeblessh. News (22 March) 7:
It is founded on the old name, “Packman's Hass,” for the gap that connects the right of the upper two tributaries of the Walker Burn with Leithen Water. Hass, I believe, means a hill pass.

5. A narrow neck-like part, e.g. on the spindle of a mill-stone (Abd. 1956). Phr. the hass o' the fit, the instep (Gall., Dmf. 1956).Sc. 1796 Session Papers, Arbuthnott v. Scott (21 April) 17:
A new method of bushing in the hass of the spindle.
Abd. 1948 Huntly Express (16 Jan.):
Here's tae the haus an' the tickler.

6. A narrow neck of water, a narrow stretch in a river (Mry. 1813 W. Leslie Agric. Mry. 458; Ork. 1929 Marw., hassie, Ork. 1956).Abd. 1901 John B. Pratt Buchan 234:
About the middle of this dangerous ridge [Cairnbulg Briggs in Fraserburgh Bay], there is a gap - or what the fishermen term a hause - called "The Trath", through which, at stream tides, small vessels occasionally pass.

7. A hug or embrace (Rxb. 1825 Jam., hause, hauss).

8. Combs.: (1) hassband, a neckband for tying a cow (Sh. 1956); (2) hausebane, the collar-bone (n.Sc. 1808 Jam., hause-been; Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 257; ‡Sh., Bnff., Abd., Ags., Peb. 1956); (3) hass-bund, bound or secured by the neck; (4) hass-furr, “the second furrow made in ploughing” (Ayr. 1923 Wilson Dial. Burns 168; Gall. 1956); (5) hass-iron, the iron collar of the Jougs, q.v.; (6) hause-pipe, throat, windpipe (Ags., Ayr. 1956); (7) hause-rig, = (4); (8) ha(u)ss-spang, an iron clamp or collar fitted round the junction of the beam and handle of the Orcadian plough (Ork. 1814 J. Shirreff Agric. Ork. 52, 1866 Edm. Gl.); (9) white hause, (a) an oatmeal pudding stuffed in a sheep's gullet (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 473); (b) the white throat, Sylvia communis (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B., -hass). Cf. kitty white-hass, id., s.v. Kitty.(2) Sc. 1724 Ramsay T.T.Misc. (1876) I. 84:
There's gowd in your garters, Marion, And silk on your white hauss-bane.
Sc. 1803 Scott Minstrelsy III. 239:
Ye'll sit on his white hause bane, And I'll pike out his bonny blue een.
Dmf. 1810 R. H. Cromek Remains 241:
An' she has prenned the broidered silk, About her white hause bane.
Rnf. 1876 D. Gilmour Paisley Weavers 108:
Her long white tapering neck bare to the hause-bane.
Ork. 1880 Dennison Sketch-Bk. 28:
He t'oucht his hass-been be brakin wi' the rug he ga'e i' pu'in' at the neek-jogg.
Sc. 1933 W. Soutar Seeds in the Wind 10:
Tick-a-tack, nick-a-nack, Brek your hawse-bane.
(3) Ork. 1880 Dennison Sketch-Bk. 30:
An' a't'o he wus hass-b'und, hid deud no hinder him tae swill a wally footh o' eel t'rough his wassan.
(5) Ib. 33:
An' sweer wus he tae tak' the lock aff o' the hass-iron; for he wus terrably jubish o' Brockie's muckle fit.
(6) Gsw. 1879 A. G. Murdoch Rhymes 98:
His hause-pipe as hearse as a craw's.
(7) Ayr. 19th c. Merry Muses (1911) 78:
Before he gat the hause-rig turned his horse began to sweat.
(9) Gall. 1822 Scots Mag. (Oct.) 423:
Suffice it to say, that neither haggies nor pudding, of every rank and authority, from the plebeian “white hause,” up to the imperial “gibby with the girds,” were absent.

II. v. To hug, embrace, take in one's arms (Slk., Rxb. 1825 Jam.), to kiss. Also ¶fig.Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 263:
No more to do but Ha'se, and go to Gody. Taken from the fondling Words of nurses to their Children. Spoken when People, all of a suddain contract a Friendship, and Familiarity, which we suspect will not be lasting.
Sc. 1724 Ramsay T.T.Misc. (1876) I. 20:
Haste to thy longing lassie, Who pants to press thy bawmy mouth, And in her bosom hawse thee.
Ayr. 1792 Burns O John, Come Kiss Me ii.:
Some will hause in ither's arms, And that's the way I like to do!
Sc. 1816 Scott Poet. Wks. (1833) VI. 345:
He halsed and kiss'd his dearest dame, that was as sweet as May.
Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 273:
Hawse and ney, the old nurse term, meaning “kiss me, and I'm pleased.”
Rxb. 1825 Jam.:
The term is still used in vulgar language. The nurse says to her child, “Hass and go.”
Sc.(E) 1913 H. P. Cameron Imit. Christ ii. vii.:
He wha hauses Jesus sal be stell'd for evir.
Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 58:
an' ayont, intil nicht,
whaur hirsty fields
streetch cauld
yet hause in dairk
the starry maucht o seed.

[O.Sc. hals(e), n., = neck, throat, from a.1400, neck of land, inlet, defile, from c.1470, hause, 1600, and v. = to embrace, from 1438; O.E. h(e)als, O.N. hals, neck. See P.L.D. § 78. 1. (2).]

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"Hause n., v.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 28 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/hause>

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