Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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HAMELT, adj., n. Also †ham(e)ald, hamal, -eil, -el(d), -eall, -ewald, -il(t), -mal, -mel, -milt, haemilt, haimald, -all, -elt, -ilt, -mel, heimilt, hemelt, hemmald, heamil, hyimald, -t. [Sc.′heməlt, -d, s.Sc. + ′hjɛməl(d)]

I. adj. 1. Belonging to home, domestic, internal; made or grown at home or native to one's country (Sc. 1808 Jam., ha(i)mald, haimilt, hamel(t); Rxb. 1825 Jam.' hameil; Per. 1915 Wilson L. Strathearn 200; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B., hameil: Peb. 1956).Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (1925) 54:
Yet I [whisky] am hameil, there's the sour mischance! I'm no frae Turkey, Italy, or France.Bwk. 1801 "Bwk. Sandie" Poems 41:
But wad ye come yoursels an' see, An' spen' a month or twa' wi me, In hamel cleedin'.Wgt. 1804 R. Couper Poems I. 117:
And former times, and hammel news, Steal aff the hour and mair.Slk. 1818 Hogg Wool-gatherer (1874) 80:
Ye're no to think that she's to gi'e hersel airs, an' forget the good auld haemilt blude that rins in her veins.Sc. 1862 A. Hislop Proverbs 133:
Lang lean maks hamald cattle. That is, poorly kept cattle makes homely, domestic, or common meat.Hdg. 1903 J. Lumsden Toorle 120:
And foes wad scatter, ance he rushed to weir, Faster and far'er than their hamald lair.Abd. 1923 R. L. Cassie Heid or Hert ii.:
The cronies sat doon at the lang hame-all table, an' eet rael herty o' Maggie's prize scones.

2. Of speech: vernacular, in the native (Scots) tongue. Also used adv.Sc. 1722 Ramsay Works (1877) II. 399:
Thus I ha'e sung, in hamelt rhyme, A sang that scorns the teeth of time.Sc. 1778 Weekly Mag. (28 Jan.) 112:
Young Fergusson, in our ain days, Began to sing in hameil lays.Bch. 1804 W. Tarras Poems 132:
My mither-gab ye'll scantly ken't, . . . An' sieth it is but hameil pen't.Per. 1817 A. Buchanan Rural Poetry 15:
[Wha] tells, in tunefu' heamil rhyme, How Scotsmen liv'd in bygane time.Fif. 1841 C. Gray Lays 220:
Were but my haimald Muse in tift, . . . I'd compliment you in a scrift O' Scottish rhyme.Lnk. 1865 J. Hamilton Poems 136:
They say that our auld hamelt tongue, my ain mither, Is deein', and sune will be dead a' thegither.Sc. a.1888 Scots Mag. (Aug. 1945) 404:
Who . . . can forget . . . Symson the Printer's Tripatriarchicon whose diction was so "very hamelt"?

3. Homely, familiar, plain, unaffected, simple, hospitable (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B., hyimald, -t; Mry.¹ 1925, hamel; Cai., Bnff., Ayr. 1956, hamel).Abd. 1809 J. Skinner Amusements 99:
Critic, or bard, o' hamil kine, Or high degree.Abd. 1868 W. Shelley Wayside Flowers 241:
There are hamel cot-houses aside the wee burn, Wi' black-thackit roofs and laigh wa's.Ags. 1880 J. E. Watt Poet. Sk. 67:
They coft a bit hoose on the bonnie brae-side — A hoose mair hamilt than braw.Cai. 1907 County of Cai. (Horne) 75:
In "Hame is hammal," the sentiment is that there is no place like home.Ayr. 1913 J. Service Memorables xiii.:
His hamelt north country style . . . was juist a cordial to my heart.Bnff. 1924 Swatches o' Hamespun 20:
A mair hamel craitur ye cudna meet; still-an-on she can keep her place, and ithers in theirs.Cai. 1986:
A hamal hostess makes a guest feel instantly at home, and, reciprocally, a hamal visitor is one who accepts and adapts immediately to the hospitality....

Also used adv. in phr. to make (someane) hammel, to make one feel at home.Cai.³ 1920:
She maks ye hammel in her hoose.

4. Of an animal: made familiar with or accustomed to pasture or quarters (Lth. 1808 Jam., haimilt).Ayr. 1847 Ballads and Songs (Paterson) 101:
And she [a sow]'s lame and she's hammilt, And mair than sax years she's been farrow I trow.

II. n. 1. Pasture near a farm or adjoining an enclosure (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl., heimilt, 1908 Jak. (1928), hemelt, ‡Sh. 1956).

2. A fisherman's tabu-name for a (house-) wife, the mistress of a house (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), hemelt, 1914 Angus Gl., hemmald, ‡Sh. 1956); sometimes used disparagingly.Sh. 1924 T. Manson Peat Comm. III. 180:
I'm been towld bi dem at kens, at "haimelt" means da wan at steys at hom — da wife, you know.