Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, G

Supplement to the  Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language
In Two Volumes.
Vol. I.
John Jamieson, D.D.
Edinburgh: Printed at the University Press;
for W. & C. Tait, 78, Prince's Street;
and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London.
MDCCCXXV (1825)GOWDIE, 3. A designation for a cow, from its light yellow colour, q. that of gold;  Upp. Lan.

GRAY, s. The Gray, twilight;  S. V. Grey.

GRAY, s. A term used to denote a drubbing;  as, "Ye'll get your gray,'" you will be well trimmed. "I'll gie him his gray,"" a threatening of retaliation on the person addressed, Roxb.
Perhaps a ludicrous use of Fr. gré, will, wish, de sire, recompense;  or from the phrase Faire gré, payer, satisfaire a ce que l'on doit;  equivalent to S. payment, i. e. drubbing.

GRAY, adj. Gray Gate, a wicked and destructive course, S.] Add;
"It's a sad and sair pity to behold youthfu' blood gaun a gatesae gray." Blackw. Mag. June 1820, p. 281.

GRAYBEARD, Greybeard, s. The name given to a large earthen jar, or bottle, for holding wine or spirituous liquor, S.
Whate'er he laid his fangs on, Be't hogshead, anker, grey-beard, pack, Past all redemption was his own, He'd even a choppin bottle take. G. Wilson's Coll. of Songs, p. 67.
"There's—the heel o' the white loaf, that cam frae the Bailie's;  and there's plenty o' brandy in the greybeard that Luckie Maclearie sent down, and win- na ye be supped like princes? " Waverley, iii. 240.
"The whisky of the low-country is no more to be compared to our own than ditch water.—I hope you will make some of the tenants give the big grey-beard a cast the length of Inverness." Saxon and Gael, i. 91,92.
Denominated, most probably, from its bearing a kind of Gorgon's head.

GRAY BREID, the designation given, in our old laws, to bread made of rye;  extending per haps to oats.
"Baxteris sail baik breid, baith quhyte and gray, to sell efter the price and consideratioun of gude men of the town, as the tyme sail be convenient." Leg. Burg. Balfour's Practicks, p. 70.
All the bread made of the flour of wheat seems to be denominated quhyte.
Hence the rude rhyme repeated by young people on the last day of the year.
Gie us of your white bread, And nane of your gray. V. Hogmanay.
"He is the honester man that will put to his hand to labour, and will sit down with gray bread conquest by his labour, nor he who eates all dilicates with idlenesse.—He that eates without labour (set him at the table head) he lies no honestie." Rollock on 2 Thess. p. 201.

GRAY DOG, the name given to the Scottish hunting dog, S.
"Canis Scoticus venaticus. Gesn.—Scot. The Grey Dog. The Deer Dog. The rough Greyhound. The Ratche." Dr. Walker's Nat. Hist. p. 474-5.

GRAY GEESE, a name vulgarty given to large field stones, lying on the surface of the ground, South of S.
"In the name of wonder, what can he be doing there?'—' Biggin a dry-stane dyke, I think, wi' the grey geese, as they ca' thae great loose stones." Tales of my Landlord, i. 81.

GRAY GROAT. It is a common phrase, " It's no worth a gray groat" or, "I wadna gie a gray groat for't;" when it is meant to under value any thing very much, or represent it as totally worthless,  S.
Christ'ning of weans we are redd of, The parish priest this he can tell;  We aw him nought but a grey groat, The off'ring for the house we in-dwell. Herd's Coll. ii. 46.
This phrase seems borrowed from some of the base silver coin which had been current in the reigh of Mary or James VI. Our Acts accordingly use a synon. phrase, gray plakkis.
—"And for all vther allayed money, quhilk is subiect to refyning, as babeis, thre penny gratis, twelf penny gratis, and gray plakkis, sic pryces as thay wer cunyeit for, or hes had cours in tyme bipast." Acts Ja. VI. 1591, Ed. 1814, p. 526.

GRAY-HEADS, s. pl. "Heads of grey-coloured oats, growing among others that are not.' Gall. Encycl.

GRAY-HEN, s. The female of the Black cock, Tetrao tetrix, Linn., S.

GRAY OATS, a spcies of oats, S.
"In some farms, they sow a good deal of what able, because they yield a pretty good crop upon our thin channelly ground, where hardly any other grain will grow." P. Blackford, Perths. Stat. Acc. iii. 207.

GRAY PAPER, brown packing paper, S.
"This stuff hath he occupied instead of gray paper, by the space of more than these ten years." M'Crie's Life of Knox, i. 441.
The phrase must have formerly borne this sense in E., as this is the language of Bale in his Declaration.
Fr. papier gris;  Isl. grápappir, charta bibula, vel emporetica.

GRAY SCOOL, the designation given in Annandale to a particular shoal of salmon.
"Those too, it is probable, spawn sooner than the last and largest species, called the Grey Scool, which appear in the Solway and rivers about the middle of July." Fisherman's Lett, to Proprietors, &c. of Fisheries in Solway, p. 8. V. Grilse.

GRAY MERCIES, inierj. An expression of surprise, Angus.
Gray mercies she replies, but I maun gang, I dread that I hae bidden here o'er lang. —Gray mercies, cousin, ye sail hae your fair, The first time I to town or merket gang. Ross's Helenore, First Edit. p. 24. 28.
This is evidently corr. from O.E. gramercy, which Johns, erroneously resolves as q. Grant me mercy. The Fr. phrase is grand merci, great mercy. It re tained its original form in Chaucer's time.
Grand mercy, lord, God thank it you (quod she) That ye han saved me my children dere. Clerkes Tale, v. 8964.
Shall we suppose that the S. form is from the plural, for grandes mercies?  Lacombe gives Gramaci as used for Grand-merci. Diet. Suppl.

GRAYS, s. pl. "A dish used by the country people in Scotland, of greens [cole worts] and cabbages beat together," Ayrs., Gl. Picken. Probably denominated from its mixed colour.

GRAUSS. "Ane womannis gownn of tanny grauss;" Aberd. Reg. A. 1548, V. 20. Perhaps dusky-coloured grey; Belg. grauw, grys, id.

GREEN, adj. 1. Not old;  applied to the milk of a nurse, Ang.
—Jean's paps wi' sa't and water washen clean, Reed that her milk gat wrang, fan it was green. Ross's Helenore, p. 13.
V. Milk-woman. Teut. groen, recens;  juvenis.
2. Fresh, not salted, S.; as, green fish.
Teut groen visch, piscis recens; groen vleesch, caro recens, non salita.
3. Recently opened;  applied to a grave.
"New & grein graves;" Aberd. Reg. Cent. 16.
4. As opposed to dry or sapless. To keep the banes green, to sustain the body, to preserve in ordinary health, S.;  q. to preserve them in a state of moisture, to keep the marrow in them.
"Albeit you were nae great gun at the bar, ye might aye have gotten a Sheriffdom, or a Commissaryship, amang the lave, to keep the banes green." St. Ronan, i. 240.
Let fortune add a social frien' To club a fire-side crack at e'en, An' tak a skair O' what may keep the banes just green, An naething mair. Pickai's Poems, ii. 41.

GREENBONE, s. The viviparous Blenny. ] Add;
It receives the same name in the Frith of Forth.
"Blennius viviparus. Viviparous Blenny;  Green- bone. Here this species sometimes gets the name of Eelpout and differ, but more frequently [that of] Grccnbone, from the back-bone becoming green when the fish is boiled." Neill's List of Fishes, p. 8.

GREEN BREESE, a stinking pool.] Add;
Allied perhaps to Isl. brus-a aestuare, from the boiling up of springs in a pool.

GREEN-COATIES, fairies, Aberd. s. pi. A name for the fairies, Aberd.

GREEN COW, a cow recently calved;  denominated from the freshness of her milk;  similar to the  phrase, " a green milk-woman," used in Angus; Roxb.
The term is evidently metaphorical, borrowed from the vegetable world, as plants, &c. retain their verdure only in proportion to the shortness of the time that has elapsed from their being cut down.

GREEN GOWN, the supposed badge of the loss of virginity, Roxb.

GREEN GOWN, a phrase used to denote the turf or sod that covers a dead body, Loth. One is said to get on the green gozen, when brought to the grave.

GREEN KAIL, s. 1. The name given to that plain species of green colewort which does not assume a round form like savoys, or become curled, S.
2. Broth made of coleworts, S.
Isl. graent kael, brassica viridis, crispa; Dan. groenkaal, id. Haldorson, vo. Kael. Wolff defines the Dan term, "Scotch cole or cale."
GREEN-KAIL-WORM, s. 1. A catepillar, S.
2. Metaph. applied to one who has a puny appearance or girlish, look.
"Shakel my knackers,' said the officer laughing, ' if I do not crack thy fool's pate!  What does the green-kail-worm mean?" Perils of Man, i. 199.

GREEN YAIR, a species of pear, S.
"The Green Yair, or Green Pear of the Yair, is-a small green fruit, sweet and juicy, but with little flavour," Neill's Hortic. Edin. Encycl. p.. 2 12.


To GRENE, Grein, Green, v., n. 2. Applied to a woman with child, &c.] Add;
It occurs in another proverb.
"You may be greedy, but you are not greening.'
An excuse for denying what one asks of us, because the want of it will not make us miscarry." Kelly, p.365.


GREY, Gray, s. 1. Grey o' the Morning; dawn of day, S.
"Ye maun take shelter somegate for the night be fore ye get to the muirs, and keep yoursel in hiding till the grey of the morning, and then you may find your way through the Drake Moss." Tales of my Landlord, ii. 95.
2. The twilight, S. Dan. gry-er, to peep or dawn;  "Det gryer af dagen, it is break of day." Wolff.

GREY, s. A badger.
The herknere bore, the holsum grey for hortis. K. Quair, v. 5.
I am informed, by a gentleman, who has paid particular attention to this subject, that, in old books of surgery, badger's grease is mentioned as an ingredient in plaisters;  undoubtedly as holsum for hortis, i. e. hurts or wounds. He views the designation herknere as applicable to the wild boar, because he is noted for his quickness of hearing, and when hunted halts from time to time, and turns up his head on one side, to listen if he be pursued.
O.E. graie, graye, id., Palsgr. Huloet;  gray, Dr. Johns., although he gives no example. The animal seems thus denominated from its colour. In Sw., however, the name is graefling, apparently from graefl-a to dig.

GREYBEARD, s. An earthen bottle. V. Graybeard.

GREY DOG, Grey Geese, Grey Scool. V. under Gray.

GREYHEAD, s. The name of a fish taken on the coast of Galloway.
" Upon the coast of this parish are many sorts of white fish taken;  one kind whereof is called by the inhabitants Greyheads, which are a very fine firm fish, big like haddocks, some greater, some lesser." Symson'g Descr. Galloway, p. 25.
One might suppose that the Gadus carbonarius or Coal fish were meant, were not this said to be a "very fine firm fish," undoubtedly not an attribute of the coal fish. It goes by the name of Gray Fish in Caithness.


GUILD, a. The name given to the barberry, [Berberis pedunculis racemosis, Linn.] in Selkirks; also denominated the Guild tree.
The reason assigned for the designation is, that its inner bark is yellow, from Dan. guild, flavus;  in the same manner as guild, denoting marigold, has its name from the colour of the flower.

GULEFITTIT, adj. Yellow-footed, or having legs of a yellow colour;  applied especially to fowls, S. V. Goor.