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.
Quotation dates: 1719, 1856-1876, 1947-1959
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O, n.2. Also aw.
1. Anything shaped like the letter O, in specif. applications: (1) the looped brass fitting fixed on the bottom rail of a window sash for raising it, a sash-lift (Per., wm.Sc. 1952); (2) comb. O plate, in mining: a cast-iron plate with a circular ridge on which coal-hutches are turned at the junctions of rail-tracks (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 48); (3) a round window. Phr. the Round O, a nickname for the town of Arbroath in Angus, from the circular opening of the ruined rose-window in its Abbey, the most conspicuous building in the town. See also 2.(1) Rnf. 1856 MS. per wm.Sc.1:
All the window openings . . . to have sashes and facings, etc. and completed with aws and fasteners.(3) Gsw. 1719 Burgh Rec. Gsw. (1909) 60:
Twenty foot cemented glass to the O's in the sclaits at four shilling six pence per foot.Ags. 1876 G. Hay Hist. Arbroath 36:
The round window, which is twelve feet in diameter, gives to the town one of the names by which it is known among its townsmen — "The Round O." This Round O is a St Catherine wheel.
2. A cipher, nothing, used fig. of a person in phr. a roun(d) O, a silly, ignorant or useless person, a nonentity (Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.). Gen.Sc.Gsw. 1947 H. W. Pryde First Bk. of McFlannels vii.:
Matt's nothing but a round O.Abd. 1959:
As far as dealin amon nowt's concerned, he's jist a roun O.
