Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

MINOR, n. As in Eng.: a person under the age of twenty-one, but in Sc. Law strictly applied to one over the age of puberty, specif. fourteen years in males and twelve in females (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 55). A younger person is termed a Pupil, q.v. Hence minority, common in legal phr. minority and lesion, see 1927 quot.Sc. 1708 Morison Decisions 9031:
His curators now finding that estate overburdened with debt, he, with their concourse, raised a reduction of his service on minority and lesion.Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institute I. i. 22:
After the Years of Pupillarity are run out those who were formerly under the Conduct of Tutors, change the Name of Pupils for that of Minors.Sc. 1780 Morison Decisions 8935:
There is no doubt in our law at what period pupillarity ends and minority begins . . . By the common law and prior to the statute 1696, as soon as the years of pupillarity were past, minors were free to act for themselves.Sc. 1927 Gloag and Henderson Intro. Law Scot. 47:
The grounds on which contracts by a minor may be avoided are minority and lesion. Lesion means some considerable — termed enorm — injury to the minor's estate, it being a recognised rule that less injury will be regarded if the minor acted alone than if he acted with a curator.