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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

FAULD, n.², v.² Also faul, fald, faud, faal. Sc. forms of Eng. fold, a pen, to pen (sheep, etc). See also Fold. The irreg. form fa' is also found in the combs. fa'-dyke, fa'-yett, due to the dropping of l from the form faul, acc. to P.L.D. § 78. [fǫ:l(d), fɑ:l(d)]

Sc. usages:

I. n. †1. Gen. in pl.: the part of the outfield which was manured by folding cattle upon it. Cf. Fauch. Freq. found in place-names. Dim. faulie.Abd. 1721 Monymusk Papers (S.H.S.) 24:
The said William Couper is to have ten outfeild folds and the faughs belonging to them.1740 Ib. 44:
All parties are to have sufficiency of herds conform to their equall proportions to keep their cattle for dunging the said folds.Abd. 1794 J. Anderson Agric. Abd. 55:
That part of the farm called outfield is divided into two unequal portions. The smallest, usually about one third part, is called folds, provincially falds. The fold ground usually consists of ten divisions, one of which each year is brought into tillage from grass. With this intent it is surrounded with a wall of sod the last year it is to remain in grass, . . . for confining the cattle during the night time, and for two or three hours each day at noon. It thus gets a tolerably full dunging, after which it is plowed up for oats during the winter.Bte. 1820 J. Blain Hist. Bute (1850) 260:
The out-fields or faulds are most commonly kept three years in oats and other three years in grass.Abd. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xxxvii.:
Fa'll that be gyaun aboot wi' Gushets there at the back faul'ies?Abd. 1993:
Er eest tae be a sheep faal at e back o e hill.

†2. The penning of cattle for milking: the milking itself. Also attrib.Wgt. 1804 R. Couper Poems I. 80:
What wad ye oure the bog or moor, At bughting or the fauld?w.Sc. 1865 A. Smith Summer in Skye I. 173:
“The fold”, as the milking of the cows is called, is pretty enough.Ork. 1880 Dennison Sketch-Bk. 40:
[He] cuppid a fauld stoup fu' o' the for-spoken water ower Black Jock's riggin.

3. From the scriptural use of fold: the churchyard (ne.Sc. 1951, faul).Abd. 1875 W. Alexander My Ain Folk xi.:
I've hed o' my nain, man, ta'en hame to the faul', an' I've neen wi' me noo but her.Abd. 1916 G. Abel Wylins 23:
My cert! they're seelent billies that are lyin' i' that faul'.

4. A ring or halo round the moon, as a presage of stormy weather (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 202; Ayr.⁸ 1951). Cf. Broch, n.Abd.⁴ 1933:
A faul roon the meen fesses oot snaw.

5. The tymp-arch of a blast-furnace (Lnk. 1951). In Eng. usage a.1874 but thought to be of Sc. origin (N.E.D.).

6. Phr. and combs.: †(1) black faulie, see quot.; †(2) coal-fauld, a coal-yard; a recess or cellar for keeping coal; in the 19th cent., a kind of bunker at the pithead into which the coal cut by each miner was emptied; (3) deevil's faulie = (1). See Deevil; (4) Goodman's fauld, see quot. under (1) and also Guidman: (5) fauld-dyke, a wall built round a fold. See 1794 quot. under 1.; †(6) fa'yett, the gate of a fold; (7) the wa(u)king o' the fauld, the all-night watch at a sheepfold at weaning time to prevent the lambs returning to their mothers (Sc. 1887 Jam.). The name of a popular 17th cent. song rewritten by Ramsay for his Gentle Shepherd.(1) ne.Sc. 1929 J. M. McPherson Prim. Beliefs in N.E. Scot. 134:
A piece of land dedicated to the devil and left untilled got various names . . . the Goodman's Fauld, . . . the Black Faulie.(2) Ayr. 1711 Ayr. Presb. Register MS. (8 May):
A barn, byre, stable and brew-house; and a coall fold with a Locked door on it as the office houses thereto belonging.Sc. 1751 Scots Mag. (Jan.) 51:
From and after Candlemas 1751, the fish-market of Edinburgh is to be kept in the old coal-fold at the foot of Marlin's wynd.Edb. 1772 Edb. Ev. Courant (11 July):
A Lodging in the Scale-stairs, Niddry's Wynd, consisting of a dining-room, . . . two cellars, and a coal-fauld.Edb.⁶ 1952:
Each bearer had a fauld to herself and at the end of the pay period the miner was paid by the number of loads deposited in it. The whole collection of faulds was known as the coalhill and hence “the hill” meant the surface, the pithead.(5) Sc. 1713 R. Wodrow Analecta (M.C. 1842) II. 178:
He lighted behind a faul-dick, and wraped himself in his cloak, and lay doun with stones to be his pillou.Sc. 1815 Scott Guy M. v.:
Would any gentleman . . . drive a road right through the corner of a fauld-dike?Abd. 1877 W. Alexander Rural Life 143:
Nothing in the shape of improvement to carry out, once the “fauld-dyke” had been erected, which was done by the joint labour of the tenants of the plough-gate or hamlet.(6) Sc. 1843 in Sc. Songs (ed. Whitelaw) 244:
He snecks the fa'-yett saftly too.(7) Sc. 1725 Ramsay T.T. Misc. (1733) 218:
Yet well I like to meet her at The wawking o' the fauld.Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore 53:
Ye maybe stown't awa frae side some lad, That's fa'en asleep at wauking of the fauld.

II. v. As in Eng. †Vbl.n., fauldin, a cattle- or sheep-fold, lit. and fig., and in comb. faulding-slap, the entrance gate to a fold.Ayr. 1787 Burns Again rejoicing Nature v.:
The Sheep-herd steeks his faulding slap.Sc. 1871 P. H. Waddell Psalms lxxxiv. 2:
My life langs sair, an' wearies awa, for the Lord's ain fauldins sae fine.Ags. 1874 C. Sievwright Love Lilts 14:
We'll faud the yowes on the broomy knowes.Abd. 1895 W. Allan Sprays II. 104:
Gie sang tae the burnie that rins by the faulin', An' jouks by the hallans o' great an' o' sma'.