A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1971 (DOST Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1399-1400, 1460-1699
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Mane, n.2 Also: man, main(e, mayn(e, mean(e, mene; mone (erroneous anglicized form). [ME. (14th c.) and e.m.E. mane, OE. manu str. fem., ON. mǫn, gen. manar.]
1. The mane of an animal, esp. a horse. Also attrib.(1) c1460 Alex. (Taym.) 524.
[Bucephalus] glitterand was his mane a1500 Henr. Test. Cress. 211. c1500-c1512 Dunb. lxi. 43.
I am ane auld hors … My mane [M. maine] is turned in to quhyt 1513 Doug. vii. xiii. 8. 1596 Dalr. I. 29/21.
Oxne and bules snawquhyte with a mane thick and syde(b) 1513 Doug. xi. x. 26.
His [sc. the horse's] lokkyrrit mayn 1513 Ib. x. xiv. 100. 1583 Sempill Sat. P. xlv. 304. 1585 Laing MSS. I. 39.
Disgysit be cutting of thair talis, maynis and earis(c) 15.. Clariodus iii. 1302.
Ane palfray … Both meane and taill did of [the] bricht gold schyne 1594 Black Bk. Taymouth 299. 1600-1610 Melvill 139.
Taking a gripe of my horse mean a1628 Carmichael Prov. No. 135.
A meir hes a meane and sa hes ane horse 1699 Misc. Spald. C. II. 97.
[A horse] his taill and inean clipped(d) 15.. Clariodus iv. 245.
Meliades, Whais palfray with the goldin taill and mene Was with them led 1572-5 Diurnal of Occurrents 321.
The menis and taillis of thair horssis brunt(e) 1501 Doug. Pal. Hon. 232.
Ane on ane asse, a widdie about his mone [: one, alone, vpone, Sinone] (2) attrib. 1580 Edinburgh Testaments IX. 53.
Tua dosone of maine camis … at xxiiij s. the dosoun 1580 Ib. X. 76 b. 1593 Edinburgh Testaments XXV. 192 b (see Kame n. 1 b). 1600 Treasurer's Accounts MS. 71 (see Kame n. 1 b). — 1677 Cunningham Diary 100.
For a horse man-cloath & making it, 17.0
b. fig. 1581 Satirical Poems xliv. 92.
So Sathan led men steid fast be the mane 1658 R. Moray Lett. 4/14 May.
We are writing without top taile or mane
c. transf. Part of the caparison of a horse. 1504–5 Treasurer's Accounts III. 34.
For iij½ pund of sewing silk to be frenȝeis and the mayn for the said capricht
2. transf. Applied to the long hair of a person. a1400 Legends of the Saints xlix. 164.
His mane in hir hand scho wan, & rawe of it a gret part done — 1461 Liber Pluscardensis 327.
[The Englishman] Mauricius, dictus Sir Maw with the rede mane a1578 Pitsc. I. 73/15 (I).
In the wangaird Manis witht the reid maine was placed
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"Mane n.2". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/mane_n_2>
