Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1714-1715, 1807-1846, 1899-1938
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DODDIT, DODDED, ppl.adj.
1. Of cattle or sheep: hornless. Also dudded. Cf. Doddie. Also in n.Eng. dial.Sc. after 1714 Geordie Whelp's Testament in Jacobite Relics (ed. Hogg 1819) I. 118:
A rickle o' peats out-owre the knowe A gimmer, and a doddit yowe.Sc. 1846 Sc. Farmer (2 Oct.) 301:
5 Black Dodded Cows, Two and Three years old, in Calf to the First Prize Bull.Sc. 1938 Times (23 May) 21/4:
From time immemorial the native cattle of Angus and Aberdeenshire, and, indeed, of the north-east of Scotland generally, were black and hornless — "dodded" or "hummle," hence the terms applied at times to representatives of the breed even to-day "Buchan Hummlies" and "Angus Doddies."Ork. 1908 J. T. S. Leask in Old-Lore Misc. I. vi. 224:
I got bit ten pound . . . for a bony bit o' a twa yearald dudded whyoo fae a Caitness drover.Abd. 1909 C. Murray Hamewith 99:
Whiles fae a skep a dreepin' comb he steals, Or clips the doddit yowes for winter wheels.Slk. 1807 Hogg Mountain Bard 193:
A hunder pund i' honest hands, An' sax an' thretty doddit yowes.
†2. "Bald, without hair" (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.).
3. Fig. Of a church: without a tower or spire.Ags. 1899 C. Sievwright Garland 44:
Noo they've gotten a schule o' their ain, an' some day sune they may get a Kirk. Maybe it will be a dodit ane.
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"Doddit ppl. adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/doddit>
