Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
LYRE, n. Also lire, layer, lyar (Ork. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 322); lyri(e), lyra, liere (Sh. 1774 G. Low Tour (1879) 124), leirie (Sh. 1861 Zoologist XIX. 7345); leerie, liri (Jak., Sh. 1961); leero (Ork. 1929 Marw.). The Manx shearwater, Puffinus puffinus (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl., 1908 Jak. (1928); Ork. 1929 Marw., lyr(i)e). Used also as a nickname for the inhabitants of Walls in Orkney (Ork. 1883 J. Tudor Ork. and Sh. 204). [′ləiər mostly Ork.; ′ləiri, ′liri Sh.]Ork. 1701 J. Brand Descr. Ork. 32:
The Lyre is a rare and delicious sea-fowl, so very fat, that you would take it to be wholly fat.Sh. 1733 T. Gifford Hist. Descr. Zetland (1879) 23:
Many sea fowls, as ember geese, rain geese, scarfes or cormorants, gulmawes. kitiweaks, lires, tarets, &c.Cai. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XI. 249:
There is a bird, called a layer, here, that hatches in some parts of the rock.Sh. 1834 Old-Lore Misc. X. v. 202:
The lyra or Manx puffin breeds in its [Lyra Skerry] perpendicular sides.Sh. 1886 G. Temple Britta 35:
Dere wis a lad frae wir toun drouned this vairy year, when he wis aifter a leerie.
