Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

(Sale,) Saill, Saile, Seill, Seale, n.⁴ [North. ME and e.m.E. sal(band) (c1299), salys pl. (1434–5), saile (1599), sayle (1668), midl. and south. ME and e.m.E. sol(e, etc., OE sál a rope, cord, line, bond, ON seil.With the forms seill, seale, cf. e.m.E. and mod. north. Eng. dial. seal v. ‘to bind (cattle) in their stalls’, OE sǽlan v., f. sál n.Also in the mod. Sc. dial. as sel(l, sail(l, sale, seal, (Jam.) sele.]

A halter for passing round the neck of an ox, etc., to secure it in its stall. 1567 Inverness Rec. I 148.
Certan oxin … of the quhilkis ane of the best … hes pereist in his house … he being fast on the saile, na bodye in the house to louse … the said oxe being worreyt on the saile … he and his wyff and househald being drinkand in Innernis Ib.
Saill 1597 Misc. Spald. C. I 179.
Scho tuik tua oxin and band in on seill Ib.
Seing tua oxin bund in on seill, passit raslie to lous the oxin 1650 Brechin Presb. 23.
Within less nor ane yeir thairafter they had a kow, bound with two seales, loused out of the byr and calved in the corne yeard