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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.

‡CASSIE, CASEY, CASIE, Caisy, Caisie, Caysie, Cazzie, Caiss, Kaz(z)ie, Kazy, Kaisie, Keiz(i)e, n.¹, v.¹ [′kɑ:zi, ′kɑsɪ̢ Sh., but ′kɛsi, ′kesi (Jak.), ′keʃɪ̢, ′kɛʃɪ̢ (Sh.³); ′ke:zi Ork.; ′ke:z(i), ′kɑ:z(ɪ̢), ′kɑsɪ̢, ′keiz(i) Cai.; ′ke:zi, ′kɑ:zi Bnff., Abd.]

I. n. 1. A basket made of straw, or of woven heather, coarse grass, reeds, “or dried dock-stalks” (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), kessi), used for carrying food, peats, etc.; a pannier; “a basket of gloy and bent bands” (Ork. 1929 Marw., kaisie, kazy, caisie, caysie; Ork.(D) 1904 Dennison Orcad. Sk. 10, kazie). Jam.² gives the form cosie; D. B. Nicolson in County of Cai. (1907) 76 gives keize, and Cai.¹ c.1920 gives kayzie, kazz.Ork. 1911 J. Firth in Old-Lore Misc., Ork., Sh., etc. IV. ii. 78:
When spring came two women were engaged to carry it [dung] out in caseys on their backs.Ork. c.1912 J. Omond Orkney 80 Years ago 17:
The kaisie was shaped like a cup, narrow at the bottom, wide at the top, and the bottom was not plaited tight like the cubbie, but had two or three bands plaited across it loosely.Ork. 1987 George MacKay Brown The Golden Bird (1989) 37:
Next morning the stone-gatherers walked over the moor to the cliff, and men and women went down from ledge to ledge with their caisies. The valley folk climbed up the rock-face, one after the other with loaded baskets.Cai. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ X. 23:
They carry their victual in straw creels called cassies, made very compactly of long oat straw woven with small twisted ropes of rushes, and fixed over straw flets on the horses' backs with a clubber and straw ropes.Cai. 1899 H. G. Graham Soc. Life Scot. 18th Cent. I. 162:
The rental of the land was paid chiefly in kind. . . . In Caithness it was partly paid in “cazzies,” or baskets for carrying food.Cai. 1916 J. Mowat Caithness Proverbs 6:
E warst time 'at oor wis, 'e maatman should get his keizie.Bnff. 1887 J. Yeats in Trans. Bnffsh. Field Club 69:
At last one night he reasted the mill and hid himself in a straw casie, which rested on the couple bauks.Abd.⁵ 1924:
Dinna look at ma heid: I clappit on this aul cazzie o' a thing te haad the sin on-brunt the skin o' ma neck.

2. A kind of straw or rush-woven bag for carrying fish.Bnff.² 1930:
I met Charlie cairryin three gweed saamon ti the station in his kaisie.

3. “A big, useless woman” (Cai.¹ c.1920, caisy, caiss).

4. Combs.: (1) cassie-cazzie, “a sort of basket made of twisted straw” (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.); (2) cazzie-chair, kazzie-, “a sort of easy chair of straw, plaited in the manner in which bee-hives or skeps are made” (Fif. 1825 Jam.²); (3) cazzie-riva, “the straw netting in which the peats are placed to be flitted to the peat-stack” (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.).

5. A cowrie shell, Cypraea Europea (Abd. 1958). See Kishie, n., 2.

II. v. To fill a cassie, to basket. Ork. 1771 P. Fea MS. Diary (May):
Cassied 18 Cassies of bear each 2 meils is 36 meils and sent it to the Storehouse.