Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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About this entry:
First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1706-2000
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MAVIS, n. Also mevies (Lnk. a.1779 D. Graham Writings (1883) II. 37); mavish (Ant. 1892 Ballymena Obs. (E.D.D.); Uls. a.1908 Traynor (1953)), and dim. forms mavosie (Sc. 1791 Young Beichan in Child Ballads (1956) I. 465); ma(a)vie (n.Sc. 1867 N. Macleod Starling xiii.; Per., Fif., Lth., Ayr. 1915–26 Wilson); maivie (Slg. 1902 W. C. Paterson Echoes 34); ¶erron. marvie. [′me:vɪs]
1. The song-thrush, Turdus ericetorum. Gen.Sc. Now only poet. or dial. in Eng.Sc. 1706 Foulis Acct. Bk. (S.H.S.) 434:
To a man brought a nest with 5 young marvies [sic].Sc. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Shep. ii. iv.:
Delightfu' notes That warble through the merle or mavis' throats.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 156:
How cou'd you troke the Mavis' note For "penny pies, all piping hot?"Ayr. 1794 Burns Ca' the yowes (2nd set) i.:
Hark, the mavis' e'ening sang Sounding Clouden's woods amang.Sc. 1813 Scott Lady of Lake iv. xii.:
Merry it is in the good greenwood, Where the mavis and merle are singing.Per. 1857 J. Stewart Sketches 79:
She's singin' like a mavie.Sh. 1886 J. Burgess Sk. and Poems 18:
He had a good tenor voice, and could sing like a mavis.Abd. 1900 C. Murray Hamewith (1913) 6:
Nae a blackbird nor a mavis, that hae pipin' for their trade.Dmf. 1912 A. Anderson Later Poems 89:
The mavis was thrang in the Eliock wuds, An' O, he pipit rarely.w.Sc. 1917 H. Foulis Jimmy Swan 297:
They look on me and my carnations like a kind o' glimpse o' the country, where the mavie whistles and the milk comes from.Ayr. 1950 D. Mackie Doon the Burn 25:
I hearken to the magic flute, On which the mavie pipes to me.m.Sc. 1979 William J. Tait in Joy Hendry Chapman 23-4 (1985) 37:
As I stoater hame through Drummond Place
At ten tae five o an April moarnin,
A barrage o birdsang opens up,
Blackies an mavises burstin their haases Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 67:
And there's birds: the mavis, the spug, the corbie,
the stuckie, the greenlintie, the bullie, e'en a gow, Lnk. 1991 Duncan Glen Selected Poems 54:
There's the quick rustle o birds aneath the bushes
and mavis's sang shairp frae a branch
heich and daurk agin the blue luift. Abd. 1996 Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web v:
Scots, Gaelic, Inglis: three leids. Takk ae wird - a birdie wird: the mavis. Noo, doon on the page, the v luiks like the birdie's beak. The m is the wings, booed in flicht, an the s is the marra o the wirm that the mavis etts fur brakkfast. Abd. 2000 Herald 15 May 19:
There is a mavis and two black-birds sitting on their nests in the wood, and one more blackie in the shoppie.
2. Fig. A variegated marble (Ags., Per. 1919 T.S.D.C.), from its speckled appearance.
3. Combs.: (1) big mavis, the missel thrush, Turdus viscivorus (Bwk. 1874 Proc. Bwk. Nat. Club VII. 295; Ags. 1962); (2) cinder mavis, see quot. and cf. Cinder-Mavis; (3) mavis-skate, the sharp-nosed ray, Raja oxyrhynchus, from the similarity in shape and colour of its pectoral fins and beak; (4) midden mavis, see Midden.(2) Edb. 1960:
Cinder-Mavis. A person who sits habitually and lazes by the fire, a lazy fire-hugging person.(3) Edb. 1811 Wernerian Soc. Trans. I. 553:
Oxyrhinchus. Sharp-nosed Ray; White-skate; Friar-skate; May-skate or Mavis-skate. This is now and then got when the nets are shot near the mouth of the Frith.
