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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.

Low, a. Also: lowe, loe, lo. [e.m.E. and ME. low(e, e.m.E. loe, taking the place of Sc. Law a.]

1. In various senses of Laich a., Lauch a., Law a.: Low in height, small; low in position, low-lying; occupying the low, or a lower, situation in a building or ship; of low condition or fortune, poor, wretched; inferior, junior.Loe houses, see Laich hous n. c, and lauche hous, Lauch a.(1) 15.. Clar. ii. 1336.
To caus be maid For sight of lordis, skaffaldis heich and braid … Hecher and lower efter thair degree 1629 Boyd Last B. 181.
As the shippe in a tempest goeth with a low saile 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1891) 471.
I am like a low man looking up to a high mountain 1665 Lauder Jrnl. 57.
He keips sick a low saile that he will not spend the thrid of his rent a year(2) 1662 Thanes of Cawdor 316.
If all the windowes in the tower … shall be glessed bothe highe and loe or only bot abowe the midbar of the caise(3) 1628 Cochran-Patrick Coinage II. 12.
Thay oppinit the durres of thair ship in the low rowmes thairof we saw her full loadnit with barrelis 1680 Edinb. B. Rec. X. 396.
Reserving alwayes to the good toun frie ish and entrie to the low roome under the Parliament House 1688 Tryal Philip Standsfield 8.
He had thrown himself in the water, and the body being taken out, and laid in a low roum 1693 Mun. Univ. Glasg. III. 511.
Each of the uppermost … chambers to pay six shillings sterling, each of the middle chambers of the second story to pay four shillings sterling, and each loe chamber off the ground to pay halfe a croun yearly(4) 1690 Fraser P. 269.
The loe houses at the foot of the rock(5) a1585 Maitl. Q. lxxi. 22.
This ȝe se is my degrie Now low now hie 1604 Elphinstone Mun. 33.
Glengarrie is brought to ane weray lowe estait 1611-57 Mure Hist. Rowallane 246.
In his time … was this land brought to a verie lo ebb being deserted by the nobilitie 1702 Cramond Ch. Aberdour 47.
The Session accept £10 Sc. from George Forbes … for his bond of 25 marks as he is very low in the world(6) 1563-1570 Buch. Wr. 13.
Quha beis nocht fund hable salbe deposit to ane lowar classe

b. This lower house, this world (as opposed to heaven). c. The low or lower hoise of the English Parliament, the Commons.b. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1891) 499.
A carried bed is kindly to the beloved down in this lower housec. 1628 Fam. Innes 216.
His Ma. and lower huis are reconcild bot not throuchlie 1641 Baillie I. 308. c1650 Spalding I. 277. Ib. II. 34.
He now seis cleirlie the lower hous of England is vpone the cours … of our disorderis a1691 Kingston Contin. Ho. Seytoun 78.
Sir Edward Turner, … whose father was long Speaker of the low house of Parliament in England

2. The Low Countries (also Country). a. The Netherlands. = Law a. 1 d. b. The Lowlands. = Lawland n. 1 and 2. Also attrib.a. 1631 Justic. Cases I. 178. 16.. R. Gordon in Macfarlane's Geog. Coll. II. 395.b. 1666-74 Fraser Polichron. 456.
The Earl of Seaforth went to the Lewis, for the more convenient way of living and improveing his interest in the low countries Ib.
He delighted much to live in the low country at Balcony Ib. 457.
For the highlanders are now brakeing out to prey uppon the low countriesattrib. 1692 R. Kirk in Edinb. Biblio. Soc. Trans. III. 259.
The … people … heretofor going under the names of elves … or the like among the low countrey Scots