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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BUIRD, BOORD, Beurd, Beward, Byoord, n.¹ and v. Also baird (Lnk. 1880 Clydesdale Readings (Short) 66; s.Sc. 1938 Border Mag. (Sept.) 136). Sc. forms of St.Eng. board. Cf. Brod, n.¹, v.¹, and Bred. Jam.⁶ gives berd and berded, ppl.adj. (w.Sc.). Where the form board is illustrated the meaning is exclusively Sc. [bu:rd, buərd Sc., but nn. and mn.Sc. + bju:rd; bø:rd I.Sc., sn.Sc., m.Sc., s.Sc.; berd m.Sc.]

I. n.

1. A board of any kind; a thin plank of wood. Gen.Sc. Deriv. buirding, boarding (Ayr. 1871 J. Paterson Reminisc. 116).Bnff.² 1933:
The loon's moleskin breeks wir barkit wi' dubs till they wir like byoords.Abd. 1863 G. Macdonald D. Elginbrod I. xii.:
There's plenty [saplings] dry eneuch for beurds i' the shed.Abd. 1991 David Ogston in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 118:
Actors, they say, afore the play
Gets yokit, plot positions
On the boords wie chalk
So's they will ken their places.Ayr. 1829 H. Ainslie in Sc. Songs (ed. R. Chambers) II. 629:
A briest like a buird, and a back like a door.

2. A notice-board; in the following quots. the notice-board at the Registrar's office. Dim. boordie. Gen.Sc.Mry.(D) 1927 E. B. Levack Stories Old Lossiemouth 44:
A'm wuntin' oor names on the boordie.Arg.¹ 1929:
They wurna cried at aa; they wur only on the Boord.

3. A table, gen. one spread for a meal (Bnff.², Abd.⁹ 1937).Sc. 1737 Ramsay Sc. Proverbs, Dedication (1819) 171:
How nither'd an' hungry wad the gentle boord look without the product o' your rigs an' faulds?Gsw. 1877 A. G. Murdoch Laird's Lykewake, etc. 183:
They brocht him ben, an' sat him doun before a weel-spread buird.Wgt. 1804 R. Couper Poems I. 243:
Ye peck right spruce upon the boord, While bairnies smirk and stare.

4. As an extension of above: the body of people meeting round a council-table, a council, committee. Also attrib. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1706 First Earl of Cromartie in Earls of Crm. (ed. Fraser 1876) II. 19:
His esheat is beggd both heer and (as I hear) at your Lordships the secretaries. These heer are content for my preference. I intreat, if any pass there, that it may be so, which the members of the buird have alwayes had.Abd.¹³ 1914:
Twa members o' the Skweel Beward took an ull wull at the maister.Edb. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick xii.:
I hae seen the day whan a body wad ha' dee'd o' hunger an' cauld, süner nor crave a bawbee frae the Buird [Parochial Board].Rxb. 1913 Kelso Chron. (24 Jan.) 2/8:
Hoo is it, then, that the Buird here has allo'ed this Grant tae be lost tae the rate-payers?

Phr.: to be on the Buird, to be in receipt of parochial relief, to be a pauper (Ags.² a.1920).

5. The board on which a corpse is laid out; a bier (Bnff.², Abd.²² 1937).Sh.(D) 1886 “G. Temple” Britta 94:
We've gotten him washed an' dressed noo, an' laid oot on his buird, wi' his taes turned till da door. In pl.: the sides of a coffin.Abd. 1865 G. Macdonald Alec Forbes I. i.:
The worn face o' him, leukin up there atween the buirds, as gin he had gotten what he wanted sae lang.

6. “The plate, box, or other vessel for receiving alms for the poor” (Sc. 1887 Jam.⁶, s.v. berd; Abd.²² 1937). Cf. Bred, n., 4.

7. The mould-board of a plough (Bnff.² 1937).Abd. 1923 At the Smithy in Bnffsh. Jnl. (29 May) 3:
The “boards” were generally procured from Messrs Sellars of Huntly.

8. “The reading desk of a pulpit” (Fif.¹⁰ 1937, boards).

9. “A bench on which tailors sat to sew” (Lnk., Lth. 1937 (per Lnk.³)).

10. Combs.: (1) bed-bewards, “the boards that are across the bottom of the bed. The bed-strae was shaken on to them and the caff bed or fedder-bed put on the top. There was no mattress” (Abd.¹³ 1910); known also to Bnff.², Lnk.³ 1937; (2) buird-claith, “table-cloth” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). Obs. in St.Eng., but still found in Eng. dial.; (3) boord-head, board-heid, (a) the head of the table; (b) “the top of a draught-board” (Ayr.² 1928, board-heid); †(4) board-trees, “a term used for the plank on which a corpse is stretched” (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.). Cf. n. 5 above.(3) (a) Sc. 1716 Ramsay Chr. Kirke ii. xvi. in Poems (1721):
The Latter-gae of haly Rhime, Sat up at the Boord-head.

II. v. As in St.Eng., except as in the following quot. This use in Eng. applies only to a Medical Board.Uls. 1880 W. H. Patterson Gl. Ant. and Dwn.:
“To board a person,” to bring him before a board (of Guardians, for instance) on some charge. “What ails you at the man?” “Sure he boarded me an' got me the sack.”