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.
HIRSTIE, adj. Also hirsty, histie, -y, and, with alternative -ly, adj. suffix, hirs(al)ly (Per. 1957). Of soil: dry and stony, barren (Fif., m.Lth. 1957, histie). Also fig. [′hɪ(r)ste, ′hɪrsle]Bch. 1735 J. Arbuthnot Practice of Farmers in Bch. (1811) 84:
A field which has a sudden descent, and an ebb hirsty mold.Ayr. 1786 Burns To a Daisy iv.:
But thou, beneath the random bield O' clod or stane, Adorns the histie stibble-field.Edb. 1822 R. Wilson Poems 21:
Nae halesome braird at a' I see, But stibble rigs an' histy lee.Bnff. 1865 Banffshire Jnl. (27 June):
Darksome's my lot in my humble cot, Whilk stands on a hirsly brae.Sc.(E) 1913 H. P. Cameron Imit. Christ ii. viii.:
Hoo histie an' hard are ye athoot Jesus!Ork. 1929 Marw.:
A puir hirsty bit that the plough kunno turn, i.e. a ridge or rocky patch left untilled. In Stennes hirsally is used = hirsty.Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 15:
I tramp athort fields for a look,
gowk on hirsty soil, hear the hungert craw
hoast owre a dwaiblie stook.
Hence histiness, barrenness.Sc.(E) 1913 H. P. Cameron Imit. Christ iii. lv.:
Come, drap doon upo' me, full me ear wi' Thy consolements, least my saul dwaum throwe scunner an' histiness o' hert.
