Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1727, 1824-1897
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PREFACE, n., v. Sc. church usages, now obs.:
I. n. A commentary on or introduction to a psalm delivered by the minister before the psalm is sung by the congregation.Sc. 1869 P. Landreth Life A. Thomson 261:
A model preface would be a far nobler help to congregational praise than any choir or organ.
II. v. Of a minister: to deliver a paraphrase of or commentary on a psalm to be sung by the congregation of a church (Sc. 1825 Jam.), to deliver a preface, see I.Sc. 1727 P. Walker Remark. Passages 150:
He had . . . a singular Gift of Prefacing, which was always practised in that Day.Sc. 1824 P. Landreth Life A. Thomson (1869) 227:
This must have appeared strange to a people whose minister “prefaces” the psalm for a full hour.Kcb. 1897 Crockett Lad's Love xv.:
Mind to tell me the Psalm upon which he prefaces.
