Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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About this entry:
First published 1976 (SND Vol. X). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1710-1920, 1998
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YOLK, n. Also youlk; yowk (Bwk. 1942 Wettstein; Rxb. 1942 Zai), yoke. Sc. forms and usages. [jo:k; Bwk., s.Sc. jʌuk]
Sc. form of Eng. yolk.Fif. 1998 Tom Hubbard Isolde's Luve-Daith 6:
Ti the blaebell's swey i the sooch, ti the delicat veins
O the white sea-campion, ti the bluid and yowk
O the three-foil lotus
Sc. usages:
1. The best part of anything, the core or pith. Obs. in Eng.Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) II. 25:
Chance gies them of Gear the Yowk And better Chiels the Shell.Bnff. 1855 G. Mann Poems 22:
There's mony a bit taen in, And made the youlk o' a' the grun.
2. A hard nodule in a softer stone, rock, or piece of metal. Hence adj. yolky as in comb. yolky stone, conglomerate rock. Also in Eng. dial.Edb. 1710 R. Sibbald Hist. Fife (1803) 329:
Here is a quarrie of free-stone, which hath yolks curiously figured: one I did see, a cylinder with lozens all over it.Per. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XIX. 543 note:
The greatest fault of the Charlestain lime, is the vast quantities of Yolks (unburned stones) it contains.Sc. 1805 Philosoph. Trans. XCV. 167:
The fracture [of a piece of metal] was gray, tore out a little in breaking, but was otherwise yolky and excessively dense.Sc. 1811 J. Ramsay Acct. Curling 3:
Those whinstone nodules, of concentric texture, called yolks, on account of their toughness, and never breaking into large fragments, are reckoned the best [curling stones]. They are found in the beds of rivers, and on the sea-shore.Ags. 1813 J. Headrick Agric. Ags. 34:
Beds of coarse pudding-stone or gravel, or yolky-stone as it is here called.
3. A kind of soft, free and good-burning coal (Lnk. 1843 Trans. Highl. Soc. 78; Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 74, also yolk coal).m.Sc. 1770 Carron Co. Letter Bks. MSS. (4 Jan.):
When the Cargo of Yolks is examined we will advise you.Cld. 1794 J. Naismith Agric. Cld. 36:
Two kinds, called yolk and cherry coal, with sometimes a parting of splint, and sometimes not.Lnk. 1845 Stat. Acc.2 VI. 258:
The yolk or jet coal, 6 inches thick, of a fine clear vitreous texture, like cannel coal affording abundance of light.Lnk. 1920 Econ. Geol. Cent. Coalfield VII. 36:
Six or seven inches at the top consist of a very rich house coal, which goes by the name of "yolks".
4. An opaque part of window glass (see quots.).Sc. 1808 Jam.:
Those round, opaque and radiated crystalizations which are found in window glass, in consequence of being too slowly cooled, are generally termed yolks, . . . probably from their supposed likeness to the yolk of an egg.Lth. 1885 J. Strathesk More Bits 10:
What panes were in the windows were 'yokes' taken from the thick central parts of cylindrical sheets of glass, with a sort of bull's eye in the middle, nearly an inch in thickness, which gradually tapered down all round to the thickness of ordinary glass, resembling a rough lens.Rxb. 1901 W. Laidlaw Poetry 34:
[The windows] were of yolks of darkish green.
