Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†FURIOUS, adj. Sc. Law: mad, insane, esp. of the violent type of lunacy (Sc. 1890 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 536). Hence furiosity, madness, lunacy; one of the grounds “on which a curator may be appointed [under a brieve] to manage the affairs of the person labouring under that infirmity” (Ib. 479), or of defence to a criminal charge.Arg. 1726 Sheriff Court Rec. MSS. (5 Aug.):
A brieve of furiosity showing the said Duncan Campbell to be non compos mentis, prodigal and furious, and seeking to be served his Curator ad litem.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles i. vii. § 27:
The distemper of the furious person does not consist in the defeat of reason, but in an over-heated imagination, which obstructs the application of reason to the purposes of life.Sc. 1814 Scott Waverley xii.:
Neither fatuous, nec naturaliter idiota, as is expressed in the brieves of furiosity.Fif. 1845 Stat. Acc.2 IX. 55:
There are 4 lunatics, 2 furious, and confined in the asylums of Perth and Dundee, 2 others tractable.Sc. 1893 A. J. G. Mackay Practice Ct. Session 500:
The brieves of furiosity and idiotry hitherto in use are abolished [since 1868].
