Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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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.
Quotation dates: 1730-1900
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FLAT, n., adj. Also †flatt. Sc. usages. For Sc. forms see Flet, adj., n.1, v.
I. n. 1. A piece of level ground, esp. one beside a river. Freq. in s.Sc. place-names from c.1220.Bwk. 1845 Stat. Acc.2 II. 105:
On the side of the stream which drains the hills are flats or haughs of considerable fertility.
†2. A stair landing.Sc. 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphitheatre 290:
A Stair of 20 steps, interrupted by a Flat.Ags. 1765 Scots Mag. (Oct.) 520:
She immediately turned back without speaking to them, and run down to the first flat of the stair.
3. A floor or storey of a house. Hence, from c.1750, a set of apartments on one floor of a house of two or more storeys occupied by one family. Gen.Sc. and now adopted in Eng.Sc. a.1737 Major Fraser's MS. (ed. Fergusson 1889) I. 215:
The Swade and the clergyman went into one room, and the Major and Lord Simon into another upon the same flatt.Abd. 1759 Abd. Journal (14 Aug.):
Large Tenement of Land, . . . well finished and fitted up for setting in different Flats, with a Kitchen to each.Bnff. 1768 Trans. Bnff. Fleld Club (1930) 31:
Those near the bulwarks came out at the windows of the second flats of their houses.Sc. 1772 Edb. Ev. Courant (25 Jan.):
These houses are capable of being set in flats, or to different families on a flat.Sc. 1777 Caled. Mercury (4 Jan.):
All and whole, three flats or storeys, with two top flats or storeys, and garret storeys, of these two new tenements . . . each flat consisting of a dining-room, two bed-rooms, two bed-closets, kitchen, and other conveniences.Sc. 1794 Scots Mag. (June) 370:
A fire . . . which . . . would have inevitably destroyed the whole land, there being but one family in the lower flat.Ags. c.1828 A. Laing Misc. Pieces 23:
My friend came frae the under flat.Kcd. 1900 Crockett Stickit Minister's Wooing 322:
In thae rickles o' stane an' lime that they rin up noo a days, ye can hear a cat sneeze ower a hale "flat."
4. A saucer (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 48; Mry. 1951). Dim. flattie (Mry.1, Bnff.9, Abd.7 1925). Also a tea-pot stand; a plate (Ags.18 1949).Sc. 1747 Nairne Peerage Evidence (1873) 81:
Silver tea pott and flatt for it three pounds.Ork. 1747 P. Ork. A.S. XII. 52:
2 white Iron flatts, with speuts for the oil press.Sc. 1782 Caled. Mercury (5 Jan.):
Vase Tea-pots and Flats; Vase Sugar-bowls and Cream-pots.Cai. 1806 Old-Lore Misc. IX. iv. 232:
Several dozen cups and "flatts" one penny each.Abd. 1835 Sc. N. & Q. (Jan. 1935) 6:
Tea cups and flats . . . 050.Mry. 1882 in L. Shaw Hist. Mry. (ed. Gordon) III. 356:
Playing the fool is a game which even wise men have joined in, coming out grotesque Flats of smashed crockery.Dmf. a.1896 J. Shaw Country Schoolmaster (ed. Wallace 1899) 196:
China cup's got a flat o' earth-ware.
†5. A cake of cow-dung (Rxb. 1825 Jam.). Phs. an altered or erroneous form of plat.
†6. A golf-club "of which the head is at a very obtuse angle to the shaft" (Sc. 1887 Jam.).
7. In dim. form flattie, a small bottle of whisky, of the Cutter type (Ork.5 1952).
8. = Flet, n.2, 2.Rxb. a.1838 Jam. MSS. XII. 77:
We were a' sitting on the flat by the fire.
II. adj. Phr. and comb.: 1. flat i' the fore, thin in the belly; see Fore, n.; 2. flat-soled, flat-footed (Bnff.2 1943).2. Sc. 1825 Jam.:
It is reckoned unlucky, if the first foot one meets in the morning be a flat-soled person.
