Talk:clever
Latest comment: 2 years ago by Equinox in topic What (Scots or Scottish) sense is this?
etymology edit
Etymology in Webster's New World Dictionary (ed. D.B. Guralnik; 1959; pbk.; 632 pp.):
[? < AS. clifian, cleave]
What (Scots or Scottish) sense is this? edit
Looks as though it might mean "sane, rational":
- 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water
- "There's somebody at the boat," she said, "waiting. Let me gang, Aunt Annie: they want me; I hear them cry. O Annie, I hear them crying as a bairn cries!"
"Lie doon on yer bed like a clever lass," said her aunt gently. "There's naebody there."
- "There's somebody at the boat," she said, "waiting. Let me gang, Aunt Annie: they want me; I hear them cry. O Annie, I hear them crying as a bairn cries!"
- 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water