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: 1700-1737, 1952-1958
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QUAIR, n. Also quar(e), quer. Sc. forms of Eng. quire. [kwe:r]
1. As in Eng., a set of twenty-four sheets of writing paper (Sc. 1818 Sawers). Comb. quair-book, a book consisting of a single quire of paper so folded as to make 16 pages, a kind of exercise book.Sc. 1700 Domestic Details Sir D. Hume (1843) 69:
A book of 3 or 4 quares of paper.Sc. 1700 Edb. Gazette (23–6 Sept.):
Dropt or Lost, a Quair Book in Ottavo, Bound end wayes, about a third of it written in short hand, of little use to any but the Owner.Edb. 1710 Burgh Rec. Edb. (1967) 199:
Each quair of new papers or pamphlets sixteen shillings per quair.Per. 1737 Ochtertyre Ho. Bk. (S.H.S.) 19, 32:
For a pound of hoaps and a quer paper . . . 2s 2d For two quers of course paper . . . 6d.
2. By extension: any literary work, orig. one that might occupy a quire of paper, a book or piece of writing of any length. Now only liter. and prob. as a reminiscence of The Kingis Quair of James I. c.1423.Sc. 1952 Scots Mag. (Jan.) 270:
There's some that tae their ingle cast Their e'en, an' wi' some learned quair, Tak' tent tae pree their leisure tame.Sc. 1958 K. Wittig Sc. Tradition 330:
In his trilogy A Scots Quair [1932–4] J. Leslie Mitchell produced the most ambitious single effort in Scottish fiction.
