clyack
English
editEtymology
editFrom Scots clyack, which is in turn from Scottish Gaelic caileag.
Noun
editclyack (uncountable)
- (Scotland, dated) Completion of the harvest season, harvesting the last sheaf of grain.
- get clyack
- finish the harvest
- 1881, Walter Gregor, Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland, page 181:
- The “clyack” sheaf was cut by the maidens on the harvest field. On no account was it allowed to touch the ground.
- 1888, J.G. Frazer, “Folk-lore at Balquhidder”, in The Folk-lore Journal, page 270:
- Mr. Duff, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, tells me that in his part of Aberdeenshire there is a competition as to who shall have the last sheaf (the clyack sheaf) like that at Balquhidder, but with this difference, that the last corn left standing and hidden is cut by the reaper himself, not, as at Balquhidder, by the girl who followed binding.
- 2008 [c. 1892], James Wilson, edited by Peter Hills, Journal of My Life and Everyday Doings 1879-81, 1885-92, Volume 18 of Scottish History Society (series), page 188:
- There are still a good many stooks about the hill sides, and Ardiecow managed to get clyack tonight.
See also
editScots
editAlternative forms
editclaaick, claik, cliack, clyck, klyack, klyock, glyack
Etymology
editFrom Scottish Gaelic caileag (“girl”);[1] compare maiden (“the last sheaf harvested, plaited and decorated with ribbons”).
Noun
editclyack (uncountable)
- the last sheaf of grain harvested at the end of the season
- the end of the harvest season
- 1886, C. Elphinstone-Dalrymple, “Duncan Gorme”, in David Herschell Edwards, editor, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets, page 34:
- It fell ahint the Clyack time, / In Cushnie whar he lay, / That Duncan Gorme has turn’d him aboot / An’ to his men did say,― […]
- It happened after harvest time / In Cushnie where he lay / That Duncan Gorme turned around / And to his men said:
- 1929, James Alexander, Mains and Hilly: A Series of Dialogues in the Aberdeenshire Dialect, page 176:
- I got the button masel’ the hin’most clyack afore I wis mairret, an’ it didna cost ma a hoast, for aw kent or that time ’at aw wid be in ma nain hoose afore anidder clyack cam’ roon’.
- I got the prize myself at the last harvest-end before I was married, and it didn’t cost me much, for I knew at that time that I would be in a house of my own before another harvest season came around.
References
edit- ^ “clyack, n.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Scots
- English terms derived from Scots
- English terms derived from Scottish Gaelic
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- Scottish English
- English dated terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- Scots terms borrowed from Scottish Gaelic
- Scots terms derived from Scottish Gaelic
- Scots lemmas
- Scots nouns
- Scots uncountable nouns
- Scots terms with usage examples
- Scots terms with quotations