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 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TAILYIE, n., v. Also tail(l)ie, tailye, ‡tailz(i)e, -zy, †taylye, †taylzie; teally, teilzie, te(y)lyie; talyee; and tyle (see etym. note). [′tel(‡j)i; ′təili (esp. in sense 1.). See P.L.D. § 108.]

I. n. 1. A cut or slice of meat for boiling or roasting (Ayr. 1811 W. Aiton Agric. Ayr., teilzie; Sh. c.1870 E.D.D., talyee), now esp. of pork (Bwk., Rxb. 1972).Lnk. 1818 A. Fordyce Country Wedding 52:
Their beef isna like to tak' weel wi' the sa't. She showed me a taylie, was gotten the nu.Fif. 1827 W. Tennant Papistry 185:
In Lothian, and in ither pairts, They denner'd weil, wi' cheirfu' hearts, On tailyies fat and fine.Sh. 1836 Gentleman's Mag. II. 593:
Tree or fowr taillies o' saat beeff.

2. A covenant or agreement (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Arch.Sc. 1857 H. S. Riddell Psalms ciii. 18:
Til sic as keepe his taylye.

3. Sc. Law: an entail, the settlement of heritable property inalienably on a specified line of heirs, not heirs at law, a practice modified by various statutes since 1685 and finally made incompetent after 1914. The form tailyie became obsol. in the mid. 18th c., the corresponding Eng. entail being substituted, and is now only in arch. use. The law books favour the spelling tailzie. Hence heir of tailyie, an heir succeeding under and enjoying rights limited by an entail.Sc. 1704 J. Maidment Pasquils (1868) 380:
Thou traytor, thou false James Wylie, Who endeavours to break king Fergus' old Tailzie.Sc. 1705 Morison Decisions 15483:
Disabling him, and all the heirs of tailzie, to alter the order of succession.Sc. a.1714 W. Fraser Scotts of Buccleuch (1878) II. 389:
If ther be any dificulty can arrise from my father's Teally.Sc. 1765 Caled. Mercury (20 July):
A paper, prepared by the Dean and the Faculty of Advocates, proposed to be presented to Parliament for amending the law concerning Tailzies.Sc. 1774 Faculty Decisions 371:
Remoter heirs of tailzie are entitled to sue for and compel registration of the entail.Sc. 1815 Scott Guy M. 1.:
Heir of tailzie and provision to the estate of Ellangowan.Sc. 1956 Scotsman (24 April) 6:
Of course Scottish heirs general succeed in cases of intestacy when there is no family settlement or “tailzie”.

†II. v. Sc. Law: to determine or prescribe the succession to an estate in time coming, to entail. Ppl.adj. tailyied, entailed, tailyier, agent n., the maker of an entail.Sc. 1706 Morison Decisions 15355:
A tenement in the Lawn-market . . . failing of him and heirs of his body, it being tailzied to the said Adam Gairns.Sc. a.1714 Earls Crm. (Fraser 1876) II. 467:
We find few or no tailyed charters at that tyme.Sc. 1734 J. Spotiswood Hope's Practicks 400:
The Custom of tailzying Estates came from Normandy; and the Word Tailzie comes from the French Word tailier, to cut, importing a cutting the ordinary Line of Succession, and giving the Estate to others than those to whom it would have descended by Law.Sc. a.1750 W. Macfarlane Geneal. Coll. (S.H.S.) I. 91:
He left no Succession, but tailzied his Estate to his Foster The Tutor of Kintail.Sc. 1758 Faculty Decisions 181:
An heir of entail paying the tailzier's debts has not, de jure, relief against the next heir of entail.Sc. 1811 Faculty Decisions 161:
An heir of tailzie in possession, is not entitled to pull down the mansion-house of the tailzied estate.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 974:
The person first called to the tailzied succession is called the institute.