Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

‡FEIFTEEN, num.adj., n. Also fifeteen (Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 7), fyfteen (Ayr. 1786 Burns Halloween xv.; Bch. 1932 Abd. Univ. Review (March) 106), foifteen (Abs. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xviii). Sc. forms and usages of Eng. fifteen. [Lth., Ayr., s.Sc. ′fɛf′tin, ‡n.Sc. ′fəif-, ′fɔif-]

I. adj. = Fifteenth (Abd.⁹, Fif.¹⁰ 1946). This use of the cardinal for the ordinal is now obs. in Eng.Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality viii.:
Second Kings, feifteen chapter, aughteen verse.

II. n. †1. The Court of Session, formerly (till 1830) composed of fifteen judges, esp. in its appellate capacity. In 1953 their number was again raised to fifteen.Sc. 1773 Boswell Tour (1785) 32:
The New Session House adjoining to it, where our Court of Fifteen (the fourteen Ordinaries, with the Lord President at their head) sit as a Court of Review.Sc. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxxiii.:
It [law-suit] was tried in the Inner-house afore the feifteen.Ayr. 1823 Galt Entail ii.:
Her cousin, Lord Killycrankie, ane of the fifteen, that aye stayed in our house when he rode the circuit.Dmf. 1836 A. Cunningham Lord Roldan I. viii.:
Blynders wrote it down as if it had been a judgment o' the fifteen.Ayr. 1890 J. Service Notandums 12:
Aye talkin' aboot hornin' and caption and the fifteen o' Embro'.

2. The first Jacobite rising of 1715. Gen.Sc. See The. Comb.: fifteen forty-five, the game of relievo or hunt-the-staigie (Per. 1950 per Fif.¹⁷), appar. from the names of both risings.