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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.

KENSPECKLE, adj., n. Also kenspickle (Uls. 1931 Northern Whig (11 Dec.) 13), kenspeckled (Fif. c.1875; Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.), kenspreckte (Abd.¹⁵ 1928), kinsprekle, kent-speckle (Ayr. 1822 Galt Provost xxxviii.), and the syncopated or erron. form kensple. [Sc. ′kɛnspɛkl, Abd. + -sprɪ̢kl]

I. adj. 1. Easily recognisable, conspicuous, of familiar appearance. Gen.Sc. Also in n.Eng. dial.Abd. p.1768 A. Ross Works (S.T.S.) 180:
For we that's gentle fouks for ever sud Kinsprekle be for ilka thing that's good.Ayr. 1795 Burns Letters (Ferguson) No. 670:
My phiz is sae kenspeckle that the very joiner's apprentice . . . knew it at once.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xxviii.:
She had little, as she said, to make “her kenspeckle when she didna speak.”Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch (1898) i.:
I have heard tell, that his speech was so Dutchified as to be scarcely kenspeckle to a Scotch European.Gsw. 1860 J. Young Poorhouse Lays 18:
Or, when at an antrin time she was seen, Nane was sae kenspeckle as Howtherin' Jean.Sh. 1879 Shetland Times (22 March):
Dis'll be da Indian nepkin he got frae his uncle. My wird, he's no sae ill kensple. I'll mebbe mak' dee gripe somebody yet.Kcb. 1894 Crockett Raiders ii.:
He had a pointed beard . . . which in a time of shaven men made him kenspeckle.Fif. 1950 Scots Mag. (Feb.) 369:
Peter Smith is a kenspeckle and popular figure in the narrow streets . . . of Cellardyke and Anstruther.wm.Sc. 1954 Robin Jenkins The Thistle and the Grail (1994) 5:
Tamas and Mysie were kenspeckle at Thistle games, she cleeking him tenderly and he droolingly proud of her rosy-cheeked bonniness. Dundee 1986 David A. MacMurchie I Remember Another Princes Street! 43:
So, another kenspeckle figure with a long pedigree passes into the history books. wm.Sc. 1989 Anna Blair The Goose Girl of Eriska 16:
He became a kenspeckle figure round the edges of the course and was soon on bonnet-lifting terms with most of the regulars. w.Lth. 2000 Davie Kerr A Puckle Poems 86:
Torphichen Gillanes, Aikens an Cooks.
Kenspeckle names still bide within. Sc. 2000 Herald 15 Jan 18:
Scottish football lost one of its more kenspeckle figures with the sudden death at his Linwood home on January 12 of Alex Wright. Abd. 2000 Sheena Blackhall The Singing Bird 1:
The mappamound it disna ken
It's thirled tae a rodden tree;
Tethered tae a kenspeckle glen,
'Twad brak its hert tae set it free.

†2. Perceptive, intelligent, knowledgeable. Rare.wm.Sc. 1827 T. Hamilton Cyril Thornton (1848) v.:
Troth, had I been ordinar kenspeckle, I might hae gathered as muckle frae yer English tongue.Sc. 1850 J. Grant Sc. Cavalier xxiii.:
Jock's gey gleg at the uptak', and mair kenspeckle than ye think.

II. n. A mark by which a person or thing may be known or recognised (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 94; Abd.⁴ 1931; Lth., Lnk. 1959).