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.
Quotation dates: 1883-1939, 1990
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‡FOWERERN, n. Also fowerere(e)n, -earn, fourareen, -a(e)rin. A boat rowed with four oars (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.; Sh.10 1953). Also used attrib.Sh. 1883 J. R. Tudor Ork. and Sh. 134:
The smaller boats, fourareens, going about half the distance, ten to thirty miles, lay and haul their lines every day.Sh. 1898 W. F. Clark Northern Gleams 37:
Da boat wis little gritter dan a fower-er-een.Sh. 1922 J. Inkster Mansie's Röd 119:
Bi dis time da men wis fix'd da twa fowereen [sic] staangs 'at Geordie Moad wis taen frae da banks fir haandspiks.Sh. 1939 A. C. O'Dell Hist. Geog. Sh. 315:
There were at the beginning of the [nineteenth] century about 459 sixerns or their equivalents (counting two fourareens as equivalent to one sixern).Sh. 1990 Observer 11 Mar :
More of the islands' sea-going history could be read in the voe behind, in the beached Shetland model fourareens whose lines faintly echo their Viking ancestry.
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"Fowerern n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 7 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/fowerern>
