Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
TRACE, n.1 Also tress (Sc. 1925 Scots Mag. (Jan.) 275; Rs. 1929). Sc. form and usage of Eng. trace, the draught-ropes or chains of harness. Deriv. tracer, a trace-horse. Gen.Sc.; a man in charge of a trace-horse, hence ¶tracerdom, trace-horse men collectively.Rs. 1810 G. S. Mackenzie Agric. Rs. 79:
Tress hems mounted . . . 6s.Ags. 1839 D. D. Black Hist. Brechin 212:
He loosed the tracer, leaped on its back, and went off.Fif. 1843 A. Bethune Peasant's Fireside 184:
The sudden jerk brought the shaft horse still nearer to that side of the road, while it made both him and the tracer lower their heads.Per. 1897 C. M. Stuart Sandy Scott's Bible Class 18:
It's no a tracer to gie ye a hand at a brae.Edb. 1899 J. Lumsden Poems 110:
Their billies, the tracers — Dickie an' Ben.Edb. 1931 E. Albert Herrin' Jennie i. ii.:
The cream of the profession were the tram-tracers. They were the cavaliers, the poets, the desperadoes of all tracerdom.
