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.
METAL, n. Also mettal, mettle.
Sc. mining usage: 1. Gen. in pl.: the geological strata in which minerals occur (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 44); “all the rocks met with in mining ore” (Sc. 1881 R. Raymond Mining Gl.).Abd. 1724 Session Papers, Leslie v. Fraser (29 March 1805) 345:
The mettals, I discovered, were a course free stone and blaes.Dmb. 1747 Session Papers, Petition J. Colquhoun (27 Jan.) 1:
Your Petitioner has a Slate Craig, called the Camstrodden Slate Craig, which is a very valuable subject; the Metal is good.Fif. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XII. 544:
In working up this mine . . . he found the metals on edge perfectly perpendicular; . . . about 50 fathoms farther, he found flat metal rising to the west, the proper rise of the coal in that part of the field.Bte. 1807 J. Headrick Arran 78:
This must be a trouble in the metals, not a vein.Lnk. 1843 Trans. Highl. Soc. 77:
Both these faults cut fairly across the metals, to use a common phrase, that is, run in the line of bearing, or from south-east to north-west.
2. Hard rock, whin (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 44).
3. Specif.: rock broken up and used in road-making. Orig. Sc. but adopted by Eng., esp. in comb. road-metal. Hence ppl.adj. metalled, of a road: constructed of this material. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1782 Session Papers, Campbell v. Moir Proof 71:
The mettle for the road is not to be got but at the south end of the road.Clc. 1795 J. F. Erskine Agric. Clc. 77:
The weight of stones (or metals, as they are generally termed by the Scotch road-makers).Sc. 1816 Prize Essays Highl. Soc. 361:
The road being formed, a space in the middle, proportioned to the width of the road, must receive a covering of such materials as will enable it to bear the weight of heavy carriages; which covering, in the language of road-making, is termed metal.Sc. 1819 T. Telford in J. L. McAdam Remarks on Road Making (1827) 188:
Great pains have been bestowed . . . in constructing firm and substantial foundations for the metalled part of the roadway.Sc. 1830 W. Shiress Tables Weights & Measures 217:
Stones for Roads, or Road Metal, by the Marl Boll.
