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.
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.
