Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1706-1838, 1904-1946
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RELEVANT, adj. Relevant in the ordinary sense of pertinent or germane to any matter was orig. a Sc. word which became St. Eng. in the 18th c. Johnson included it (but not irrelevant) only on the testimony of some earlier dictionaries, e.g. Bailey, which took it to mean “relieving”, merely translating the Fr. orig. It seems to have come into Eng. through Parliamentary usage, appearing in Burke, and is an extension from the orig. and still current application in Sc. Law: legally sufficient, pertinent or adequate, esp. of a claim, charge or defence, where the facts alleged, if proved, would justify the granting of the penalty, remedy or discharge sought (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 75). Hence relevancy, †-ie, n., relevantly, adv.Sc. 1706 W. Hector Judicial Rec. (1876) I. 196:
The Judge . . . sustains the libel of picking and wrongous intromission relevant to infer ane arbitrary punishment.Slg. 1713 Balgair Court Min. (S.R.S.) 11:
The Bayllie considering the relevancie thereof ordaines the tenents of Over Glens to joyn with the Nether Glens and big up ane dyke.Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. ii. 229:
After the Dispute of the Relevancy is concluded, Proof of the Matters of Fact alledged by the Parties fall under consideration.Sc. c.1740 D. Hume Trial for Crimes (1800) II. 68:
The style of the judgment reformed into what it now is; viz. a general finding or declaration that the libel, as laid, is relevant to infer the pains of law. The meaning whereof is only this, that it contains a regular and consistent charge of a known crime, such as may go to an assize, and justify a sentence, in case the pannel shall be convicted.Sc. 1774 Gentleman & Lady's Weekly Mag. (28 Jan.) 31:
No objection was made to the relevancy of the indictment.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xxii.:
The Court is gaun to pronounce the interlocutor of relevancy. . . . The Judges. after a few words, recorded their judgment, which bore, that the indictment, if proved, was relevant to infer the pains of law.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 844:
In civil cases, the rule is different, it being frequently necessary in such cases to have the facts in question ascertained before answer, that is, before determining as to the relevancy of the respective averments of the parties.Sc. 1904 A. M. Anderson Criminal Law 269:
The Act of 1887 provides that it shall not be necessary to enter upon the record an interlocutor finding the indictment relevant. When objections are taken to the relevancy it shall not be necessary to enter . . . any other minutes setting forth how such objections were disposed.Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 7 5:
A plea to relevancy is an attack upon the relevancy.
