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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SCART, n.³ Also skart(h), scarth, scaurt, scairt. [skɑrt, skert. See P.L.D. § 48.(2).]

1. The cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo, or the shag, Phalacrocorax aristotelis (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 422; Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.; Bnff. 1893 Dunbar's Poems (S.T.S.) III. 50; Dmf. 1894 Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 154; Uls. 1953 Traynor; Ags., Fif. (scairt), wm. and sm.Sc. 1969). Deriv. ¶scartling, a young cormorant.e.Lth. 1730 Earl of Haddington Select Poems (1824) 210:
Gin ye winna len' me your wife, I'll ha'd me wi' a scart.Knr. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ V. 158:
The wildfowls, that frequent this lake, are the heron, scart.Sc. 1817 Scott Rob Roy xxx.:
Like the scarts and sea-maws at the Cumries, there's aye foul weather follows their skirling.wm.Sc. 1889 J. C. Alston West Coast Ballads 2:
“Murrits”, “scairts”, an' “solan geese”, flee whurrin', scoorin' past.Sc. 1893 Blackwood's Mag. (Sept.) 444:
In several nests were found young scartlings — fluffy, dull-grey, ungainly creatures.Sc. 1905 A. R. Forbes Gaelic Names 253:
The cormorant passes through three stages of existence; in the first year it is called a scart, for seven years a speckled hen, and for seven more a cormorant.Kcb. 1927 Gallovid. Annual 25:
Along our shores the cormorant is properly known as the scart.Sc. 1935 Rintoul & Baxter Fauna of Forth 196:
The old records of the cormorant and shag are so mixed up under the general title of “skart” that it is now practically impossible to disentangle them.m.Sc. 2000 Stewart McGavin in Alec Finlay Atoms of Delight 48:
twa scarts jist a fit
abune the skinklan watter
flee intil sundoon

2. A nickname for a native or inhabitant of Mochrum parish in Wgt. (Wgt. 1897 66th Report Brit. Ass. 495).