Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SCRAE, n.², v. Also skrae, skrea, scray. [skre:]

I. n. Fish preserved by being dried in the sun, gen. in comb. scrae-fish (Ork. 1866 Edm. Gl.; Cai. 1903 E.D.D.; Ork. 1929 Marw.), scrae-sellag, a coal-fish so treated (Cai. 1969).Sh. 1806 P. Neill Tour 78:
Small coalfish, called piltocks, strung upon spits, and exposed to dry, without salt. The fishes dried in this manner are called scrae-fish.Cai. 1842 J. T. Calder Sketches 54:
To supply them with “skrea” in the way of an eatable, which never failed to act as a provocative to their thirst.Ork. 1845 Stat. Acc.² XV. 193:
Before the herring fishing began, the people fished skrae or sillocks, podlies, and sold them by thousands.Cai. 1922 J. Horne Poems 131:
Then I saw 'e word Fish. “Weel, I'll jist hev a scrae sellag,” says I.

II. v. To dry a fish in this manner (Cai. 1969).Cai. 1887 Harvie-Brown and Buckley Fauna Cai. 275:
[Sillocks] dried without salt, are said to be “scraed”.Cai. 1960 Edb. John o' Groat Liter. Soc. 29:
On 'e ither hand ye could scray him. Clean him first, leave him in salt an' water for a while, an' then string him up in 'e roof till he got as hard's a boord. . . . In ma young days it was a common sicht in a hoose till see a string o' scrayed sellags hingin' up in'e roof.