Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

AIRT, Airth, n.¹ Sc. form of St.Eng. art. Hence airtist, artist (Bwk. 1859 P. Landreth J. Spindle (1911) 49), airtless (Wgt. 1885 G. Fraser Poems 39). The Eng. spelling is also common. (See P.L.D. § 51(2).) [ert, ɛrt]Sc. 1808 E. Hamilton Cottagers of Glenb. (1822) xiii.:
She maun hae an unco airt . . . to gar ye do sae muckle, and think sae little o't.Fif. 2000 William Hershaw in Alec Finlay Atoms of Delight 107:
A Leid Ca'd Love
It's no your creed
and it's never your airt,
mak your leid cam fae your hert. Edb. 2003:
Ah wis nae guid at airt at the scuil.

Phrases: Art and part, airt and pairt, airt or pairt, neither airt nor pairt. (See quots.) A Sc. law term, but also in use in ordinary St.Eng. though not in Eng. law. See N.E.D., Art 16.Sc. 1753 Stewart's Trial 283 (N.E.D.):
Find unanimously, the pannel James Stewart guilty, art and part, of the murder of Colin Campbell.Sc. 1773 Erskine Inst. Law Scot. (1828) II. 1024:
One may be guilty of a crime, not only by perpetrating it, but by being accessory to, or abetting it; which is called in the Roman law, ope et consilio, and in ours, art and part. By art is understood, the mandate, instigation, or advice, that may have been given towards committing the crime; part expresses the share that one takes to himself in it, by the aid or assistance which he gives the criminal in the commission of it.Abd. 1874 N. Maclean Life at a Northern Univ. 177:
Ye're a' airt an' pairt in Downie's slauchter.Ags. 1705 Dundee Presb. Records 27 March:
To be severely punished as airth and part to the forgery.Fif. 1864 W. D. Latto Tammas Bodkin 301:
The mony momentous exploits I've had a hand in, either airt or pairt.Kcb. 1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders (1909) xxxi.:
The Faas hae neither airt nor pairt in the murderings.