Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BOND, n. and v. Also boan. Sc. law. The general meaning of this word in Scots law is the same as in English; but in Scotland it usually refers to money lent on the security of land or buildings, and so is equivalent to the English “mortgage,” a word not used in Scotland in this sense, except as an English loan-word. The document which represents such a debt in Scotland is termed a bond and disposition in security, and contains an acknowledgment of debt along with a conveyance of the property (Abd.¹⁶ 1934).

1. n. A mortgage.Sc. 1862 J. H. Burton Book-hunter II. 131:
We [Scots] speak of a bond instead of a mortgage.Sc. 1909 Colville 72:
Real estate is mortgaged under a bond or disposition in security.

2. v.

(1) To mortgage.Rnf. 1861 J. Barr Poems 109:
I've heard that his property's bonded.Kcb. 1893 S. R. Crockett Stickit Minister (1895) 6:
I got the place quietly bonded, and bought him old Dr Aitkin's practice.

(2) To give services to a family in return for one's board. A nonce backformation from Bondage. Rnf. 1841 Private MS.:
I dreaded the thought of a young Lady boanning in the house [as a governess].