Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BARD, Baird, n.¹ [bɑrd, berd]

1. A singer, a strolling minstrel, until the 18th cent. gen. in a derogatory sense.Sc. 1805 Scott Last Minstrel, Intro.:
The last of all the bards was he, Who sung of Border chivalry.Lnk. 1827 W. Motherwell Minstrelsy xxxviii.:
A vagabond, thief, counterfeit, limmer and bard were synonymous.Ayr. 1822 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 68:
Our precepts shall be, those have hallowed thee, Fair Land of the Patriot and Bard!

2. A scold, a noisy woman.Sc. 1887 Jam.⁶:
Baird, a noisy, turbulent person; generally applied to a scold.Sh. 1914 Angus Gl.:
Bard, a scolding woman. [Also known to Sh.⁴]Cai. 1907 D. B. Nicolson in County of Cai. 64:
She's a wild bard.

3. Comb.: bard's croft, the piece of land on the property of a chief hereditarily appropriated to the family bard.Sc. 1814 Scott Waverley I. xxi.:
He received, in donatives from the individuals of the clan, more seed-barley than would have sowed his Highland Parnassus, the Bard's croft, as it was called, ten times over.