Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1707-1720, 1804, 1983-1998
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†SKELET, n. Also skellet, scelet, skellat. A skeleton, lit. and fig. This form is now only dial. in Eng. since the 17th-c.Sc. 1707 Fountainhall Decisions (1761) II. 386:
The Lords thought this decreet had not so much as the visage and scelet of a decreet.Sc. 1720 A. Pennecuik Helicon 146:
The Skelet now hath got his Breast-Plate on.Abd. 1804 W. Tarras Poems 9:
Sae aff it fudder't owre the height, As fleet's a skellat.Sc. 1983 John McDonald in Joy Hendry Chapman 37 44:
Skellets chitter in a licht
nae dawin wrocht - a dreel o wund
vainishin intae a gloweret lift;
air is fire; banes sowther. em.Sc. 1991 James Robertson in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 172:
Wha'd awn thon skelet in the press
Wha didna want the past ahint him ayeweys
Proggin at his elbuck for a tanner? Fif. 1998 Tom Hubbard Isolde's Luve-Daith 4:
As mony year it seemed as we follaed thon fankle
O pit-mirk pads whaur I wis feart ti hyter
Ower the skelets o men an aiblins o weemen an weans:
