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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

DOMINIE, n. Also †domine(e). ¶domanie, and contr. forms dom (Bnff.². Abd.² 1940), domie (Mry. 1949 (per Fif.¹⁷), and ¶domin'. Formerly in use in Eng.

1. A schoolmaster; a female teacher. Gen.Sc. †A student at a University (Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 315, foot-note).Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 86:
Doves and Domines leave ay a foul House.Sc. c.1763 in Scott Letters 1828–31 (ed. Grierson) 113:
A dominie, man — an auld dominie. He [Dr Johnson] keepit a schule and caa'd it an academy.Sc. 1815 Scott Guy M. ii.:
Abel Sampson, commonly called, from his occupation as a pedagogue, Dominie Sampson.Sc. 1989 Nicholas Fairbairn A Life is Too Short 39:
...first, doing blobs with Miss Strachan, the headmistress - fat, motherly, indevirginate and prim, one of the generation of wise principled dominies now alas extinct except in the country... Sc. 1996 Herald (30 Jan) 16:
So what does the word [teacher] mean? One definition is one who instructs. The Scots word dominie means master. Dominies expected obedience and respect and got it. Sc. 2000 Sunday Herald (26 Nov) 5:
'Look," booms Tam Dalyell. It is a sound reaching back to the farthest recesses of his throat, to an Etonian schooling in the late 1940s, and to classroom discipline as a Bo'ness Academy dominie in the late 1950s. Sc. 2001 Edinburgh Evening News (7 Sep) 13:
What makes this story so appealing is that the pupils called for the change themselves - not a headstrong headmaster or domineering dominie. Sc. 2003 Scotsman 3 Oct:
Tony, who was in This Life with Daniela Nardini, is another of Holyrood School's high-profile old boys, such as Fran Healy, Jim Kerr and dominie Frank McAveety, ... Sc. 2003 Herald (31 Dec) 15:
It is no dishonour to be chided by Andrew Lockhart Walker (December 24), author of The Revival of the Democratic Intellect, probably the most important book on Scottish university education of the latter part of the twentieth century; the simultaneous praise (the mark of the true Scottish dominie) is gratefully acknowledged.Ork. 1994 Orcadian (1 Dec) 8:
John Aberdein's wit and formal skill are both in evidence in this polished and amusing story of an Aberdeen dominie and his star pupil Peem. ne.Sc. 1714 R. Smith Poems (1869) 1:
I'll return to the hunder Merk, Which the Queen granted to Glenshee, For to maintain a Dominie.Abd. 1922 G. P. Dunbar Doric 16:
The domin' daunert doon ae day.Abd. 1928 J. Baxter A' Ae 'Oo' 21:
The Dom sat back in his laich-backit cheir.Abd. 1998 Sheena Blackhall The Bonsai Grower 47:
" ... There's nae Sabbath Schule the day - Mrs Barron the dominie's nae weel sae ye maun sit throw the sermon wi me. Dundee 1991 Ellie McDonald The Gangan Fuit 25:
the weans got thir licks
frae the dominie
for yasin the auld leid. em.Sc.(a) 1991 Kate Armstrong in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 113:
Wir dominie learned us the lives o the great
o lang syne. Edb. 1851 A. Maclagan Sk. from Nature 175:
There's Dominie Davie, sae glib i' the mou, But it's like ye will fin' the auld carl blin' fou.wm.Sc. 1980 Anna Blair The Rowan on the Ridge 13:
Charlie had spent a year with the kirktoun dominie, and had the reading and lettering, and when Lord Cochrane took him on as replacement steward for Rob, he agreed that Bryce should come to the mill as Jamie's hand. wm.Sc. 1986 Robert MacLellan in Joy Hendry Chapman 43-4 32:
Send word to the Dominie to gar the bairns dae the biddin, and order the funeral boat. Ayr. 1712 Arch. & Hist. Coll. Ayr & Wgt. II. 192:
Here I was likewise opposed by the Commonalty, who were horribly affraid at the verray name of a Latin Domine, as they call him; and beside, the English Domine was bred and born among them (as we use to say here) and related to many of them.Ayr. 1823 Galt R. Gilhaize II. xiii.:
Captain Bannerman was a real dominie o' war.Kcb. 1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders xxvii.:
It's easy for the dominie to get a laugh in the school.

†2. A clergyman.Sc. c.1700 J. Maidment New Bk. Old Ballads (1885) 7:
Ministers make poor testaments; No Dominies for me Lady.Sc. 1714 R. Wodrow in H. G. Graham Soc. Life Scot. (1899) II. 27:
Our upstart dominies, so soon as they attain to ordination.Kcd. 1712–30 C. E. G. Wright (ed.) G. Guthrie (1900) 68:
The Parish of Dunnottar at that time had another of these Dominees imposed upon them.