Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1824, 1885-1927
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BENNEL, Bennle, n.
1. Often used in pl. A long reedy grass of any kind.w.Sc. 1924 Glasgow Herald (25 Nov.) 10:
It [cornstack] is usually founded on large stones and thorn branches. . . . It is thatched with strae or reshies or bennels.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 63:
Bennles. Things dry and brittle, as reed.s.Sc. 1887 Jam.6:
Bennels, Bennles, the name given to the various kinds of reed-grass and reeds which are used for making mats.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 53:
Bennel. A stalk of the common reed Phragmites communis. Usually pl.
2. "Dry withered weeds collected for fuel" (s.Sc. 1887 Jam.6).
3. (See quot.)Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928):
Bennel. A band of straw with which a sheaf of corn is tied; also one of the bands of straw with which a stack of corn is kept together. Sh. 1914 Angus Gl.[1, 2, prob. so called because used for binding sheaves, etc. Cf. bent bands s.v. Bent, n.]
4. "A mat of reeds formerly used in poorer houses (1) for screening rafters of a ceiling [obsol.] or (2) for forming partitions in cottages [obs.]" (Rxb. 1825 Jam.2; 1923 Watson W.-B.). attrib.Bwk. 1927 R. S. Gibb Farmer's 50 Years 17:
He produced his "Bennells". These consisted of large rolls of dried, blackheaded bullrushes (Scirpus locustrus [sic]) sewed and strung together so as to form light and fairly impervious sheets [for ceilings].Rxb. c.1885 W. Laidlaw Poetry and Prose (1901) 34:
The bennel-ceiling then was brunt.
5. †"Bennels, Lint-Bennels, n.pl. The seed of flax" (Rxb. 1825 Jam.2; 1923 Watson W.-B., s.v. Bennel).
[5 is prob. a contr. of bennel-seeds — i.e. the name of the dried stalk being used to designate what was on it. Origin uncertain. Bent, n., q.v., has been suggested with dim. suff. el, for which cf. E.Ang. bentle, coarse reedy grass; also O.N. bendill, a band, for which cf. Benlin, n.1, cogn. with O.E. band and band.]
