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.

Seme, n.² Also: sem, seyme, seame, schame. [Late north. ME seme (1406), OE séam (Seme n.¹) with the sense of the corresp. ON saum-r ‘a nail, esp. of a ship’ (Cleasby-Vigf.), also coll. ‘nails’ (Fritzner Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog).] In coll. use, and only in the phrase Seme (also once sems) and rufe (rufis): Nails used to join together the overlapping parts of two planks, or the like, and clenched on a rove. (Cf. Ruf(e n.² for further examples.) —(a) 1494 Treas. Acc. I 253.
For thre stane and tua pund of seyme and rufe to the cokbate 1497 Treas. Acc. I 334.
For j^c seme and ruffis to the ȝet of Dunbar 1537–8 M. Works Acc. (ed.) I 226.
To tua chyris to the quenis grace, ilk chyre vi paire bandis with seme and ruif, with cleikis stapillis nalis and all necessaris to thame 1608 Edinb. Test. XLIV 61.
Ane … cobill wantand thir furnitour viz. ane ankir [etc.] … thrie boyndis with ane hundreth seame and ruif ?1659 Nicolson Diurnals 5 May.
500 sems and ruffe 5 li. —(b) 1575 Perth Hammermen in Whitelaw Sc. Arms Makers 263.
John Pait confessit him … that he had maid schame and rowf quhilk pertenis to the blaksmiths and not to cuttaris