A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1456-1512, 1580
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Laxative, Laxatif, a. and n. Also: laxatyve, laxitiff. [ME. (Chaucer, Trevisa, etc.) laxatif, -yf(e, laxative, -yve, F. laxatif, -ive, L. laxātīvus.]
1. adj. a. Of food, medicine, etc.: Laxative, tending to loosen the bowels. b. Of the bowels or stomach; Loose.a (a) 1456 Hay II. 123/10.
For metis that ar restrenȝeand ar nocht spedefull to be etyn first, bot erar metis laxatyves 1456 Ib. 129/13.
[To] us gude spicis nocht our constrictives, bot laxatives and nutritives, and hald the wambe ay moiste 1580 Skeyne Descr. Well A 4.
Being also laxatiue and prouokis womitine, sa it oppinnis the obstructiounis & oppillatiounis of the liuer(b) 1495 Halyb. 41.
A li. anys laxitiff, costs 4s. li.b. 1456 Hay II. 129/11.
It is rycht spedefull till have the wambe than moyste and laxative
2. n. Natural looseness or movement of the bowels; also, the morbid condition of looseness of the bowels, ‘flux’. 1456 Hay II. 129/16.
For in that tyme, quhat ever a man les of his blude, or of his nature or of his laxatives, the vertuous sesone … restoris naturaly all agayne c1500-c1512 Dunb. xxxiii. 41.
He cowth gif cure for laxatyve [Asl. laxatif]
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"Laxative adj., n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/laxative>
