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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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

EITH, adj., adv. Also eath, eeth, aith. [i:θ Sc., but Dmf. + eθ]

†1. adj. Easy. Found most commonly in proverbial sayings.Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 183:
It [is] eith crying Yule, under another Man's Stool. The Words are hardly Sense; but it is spoken when we see People spend liberally, what is not their own.Rnf. 1813 E. Picken Poems II. 131:
Ye kenna how eith it may be, till ye see.Sc. 1847 H. Miller First Impressions (1848) xiv. 260:
There has been much written on the learning of Shakespeare but not much to the purpose: one of our old Scotch proverbs is worth all the dissertations on the subject I have yet seen. “God's bairns”, it says, “are eath to lear”, i.e. easily instructed.Sc. 1862 A. Hislop Proverbs 171:
Silly bairns are eith to lear.

2. adv. Easily, without difficulty. Superl. form eithest (Sc. 1724 Ramsay T. T. Misc. (1733) I. 25). Now only arch.Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems II. 66:
O'er a' thou canst us eith thy Sceptre sway, As Badrans can with cheeping Rottans play.Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore 100:
Besides I see she's mettle to the teeth, An' looks na like to be put aff so eith.Edb. 1798 D. Crawford Poems 47:
But na, it was nae order'd sae, That I sae eith sud spin a lay.Dmf. 1823 J. Kennedy Poems 123:
Their food and their raiment he eith can supply.

Hence eithly, id.; also eethly (Ags. 1790 D. Morison Poems 106); eath(i)ly; aithly (Dmf. 1869 R. Quinn Plain Truth 261); eithlie.Sc. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Shepherd Act II. Sc. i. in Poems (1728):
Now God be thanked that our Laird's come hame, And his Estate, say, can he eithly claim?Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore 123:
He only frae some hints cud eathly learn, That butt a' doubt she was some gentle bairn.Rxb. 1826 A. Scott Poems 41:
Now we have better roads; an' horses twa, What then wad laden eight, can eithly draw.Per. 1895 R. Ford Tayside Songs 160:
Wi' shoothers like a maister brewer, An' shanks that eithly fill a stockin'.Sc. 1928 L. Spence in Scots Mag. (May) 143:
But whan the lassie cam' eithlie to the owrecome o't . . . he set up in his chair and glowered at the fouk roond him.Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 64:
the bairns that gied ye sic pains
werena born tae dee sae eithly. C'wa
an' dance wi us or nicht's hyne-awa!