The Scottish language has changed over the
years, being influenced by other languages and
cultures. This section provides you with a definition
of those words and phrases commonly found in
documents and records throughout Scotland's
archives. If you know of a word you would like
added to the Glossary then please contact
us.
a letter under the signet to do with diligence;
this one empowered a messenger at arms to break
open the doors of any place which contained
a debtor's goods, so that they could be poinded
outed minister
a minister who had been ejected from his parish
outfeild
the more outlying and less fertile part of a
farm, where the ground was seldom or never cultivated
(before the introduction of enclosure and crop
rotation in the 18th century)
outredding
usually applied to someone's "affairs";
it means "settling"
moveable property kept or lying out of doors;
it would include livestock and implements like
ploughs, but not corn or hay, which were not
reckoned as "plenishings"
oversman
an umpire who was appointed to settle some
matter which had gone to arbitration, but on
which the arbiters had been unable to decide
