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.

Sellet(t, -it, Sallat, -et, n. Also: selet, sallad(e. [ME and e.m.E. salat (c1390), salad (c1460), selad (c1490), salet (1520), salade (1533), sallat (1562), -et (1568), -ad (1601), OF salade (c1350 in Godefroy). Cf. OIt. salata.]

1. a. A salad vegetable. b. A salad, a dish of or including salad vegetables.Also grand, green, purple sellet.a., b. 1587-99 Hume 30/144.
The water cald and cleare is brought, And sallets steipt in vle 1601 Dundee Shipping P. 70.
Sallats and mellonness 1636 Re-examination of the Five Articles 6.
The second course of the Paschall supper, … a sallet made of sowre heerbs 1666-74 Fraser Polichron. 31.
With curious sallats and fruites(b) 1621 Maxwell Mem. I 331.
For sellett … vij d. 1631 Buccleuch Household Bk. 1 Oct.
For reid carrits to be sellits 1643 Edinb. Test. LX 281.
Ane quhyt irone dreiper of sellettis 1652 Nicoll Diary 103.
Upone the 27 of November this yeir sellettis and sybees wer … sauld in Edinburgh 1671 Sc. Hist. Rev. LXI 147.
Thrie chickens and a pwrpie sellet is 3 s. 6 d. c1675 Sc. Ant. I 178.
Figges 4 s., selet 1 s. 1698 Marchmont 183.
[Bill of Fare]; grand sellet 1698 Marchmont 183.
Green sellet(c) 1601 Dundee Shipping P. 70.
For wayne and breid … For fardeinis … for sallads 1665–7 Lauder Jrnl. 92.
The French mock at our sweit sauses and sugared sallades

2. In STS editions of Scott xv 8 and Bann. MS 242b/8, sallat may be a misreading for ballat.A loop appears to have been added to a long downstroke originally intended as an s or an f, suggesting a scribal correction to ballat. The letter forms are inconsistent and the ink of the loop appears to be the same as that of the downstroke. In literary terms ballat makes much better sense than sallat (which is not otherwise found in a literary context - see above) as well as providing an alliteration with blench ferme earlier in the line. (We are indebted for this suggestion to Theo van Heijnsbergen of Groningen University.) a1568 Scott xv 8.
Having thy ladeis hart as heretaige In blenche ferme for ane ballat [pr. sallat] every May