Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
BROCKIT, BROCKED, Brocket, Broked, Brokit, Brewket, adj. Also brucket, -it, -ed, bruiked (Abd. 1761 Abd. Journal (1 June)); broaked in sense 3. (Ags. 1777 Dundee Weekly Mag. (4 April) 216). Coloured like a badger, i.e. with black and white stripes or spots. [′brɔkɪt, ′brokɪt, ′brukɪt]
1. Applied to animals, gen. to a cow or sheep, esp. an animal with a white streak down its face. Hence comb. brucked-faced. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1775 D. Loch Essay on Trade 6:
The brucked faced sheep, so much raised in Tweedale.Sc. 1904 Lads of Wamphray in Ballads (ed. Child) No. 184 vii.:
Twixt the Staywood Buss and Langside Hill, They stelld the broked cow and branded bull.ne.Sc. 1884 D. Grant Lays and Leg. of the North (1908) 13:
My sister lost the brocket lam' She got fae Tammie Durrit.Mry. 1873 J. Brown Round Table Club 232:
It [serpent] had a bonnie speckl't, brokit skin, an' the man said it eatit only ance in the month.Kcd. 1699 Black Book Kcd. (1843) 109:
He said that the brocket cow was his own.Lnk. c.1779 D. Graham Writings (1883) II. 162:
Ah! how we drank other's healths with the broe of the brewket ewes.Wgt. 1804 R. Couper Poems II. 65:
And twa three brockit fleas.
2. Applied to persons: streaked with dirt; filthy; disfigured, lit. or fig. Also of things: marked in some way, as with soot, mud, etc., streaky, lined. Gen.Sc. Sc. 1936 W. Soutar Poems (1961) 103:
As bruckit frae the brundin bale The rizzard grapes upraucht.Ags. 1891 A. T. Matthews Poems and Songs 30:
Oh! gin oor fauts were a' revealed, There wad be mony a brockit chield.w.Sc. 1887 Jam.6:
Ay, badger he is! brockit, barken't, saur't an' a'.Gsw. 1877 A. G. Murdoch Laird's Lykewake 27, 189:
Sae, owre the bruckit wa' we clam' . . . That brucket "cauld clay biggin".Dmf. 1899 Country Schoolmaster (Wallace) 371:
Her arms and neck, the servants say, Are made o' unco bruckit clay.Tyr. 1928 “M. Mulcaghey” Ballymulcaghey (1929) ii.:
Long Tam was coortin' a daughter of brockit [pock-marked] James Wallace's of the Brae face.
3. Applied to oats: black and white growing promiscuously (Abd. 1700 S.C. Misc. (1906) II. 21) .Bch. 1910 A. Murray Peterhead a Century Ago 50:
Oats were then mostly what was termed brocked oats or bearded oats or small corn with now and then a sprinkling of wild or native oats, and this [kind of] oats, having a long black aven, had to be separated before going to the mill.Abd. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 VI. 17:
Some brocked, but little, if any, small oats are now raised.
4. Applied to cloth: “having a confused medley of colours” (Arg.2 1936).
5. Comb.: brocket-ground, brockit grun, “a mixture of clay and boggy land” (Ant. 1898 E.D.D.); “moory ground” (Uls. 1924 A Screed frae Cookstown in North. Whig (Jan.), brockit grun).
[Of Scand. orig. Cf. Norw. dial. brokutt, Dan. broget, flecked, streaked. O.Sc. has brokit, brokkit, brocked, of mixed colour, esp. black and white, earliest date 1581; also brokit aits (1578) with meaning as in 3 (D.O.S.T.).]You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Brockit adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 26 Dec 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/brockit>