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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Quotation dates: 1780, 1843-1860

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CLAUT AN(D) CLAY, CLAT —, n.phr. Straw covered with mud and clay and plastered on a wooden framework to form a rough kind of wall. Watson Rxb. W.-B. (1923) gives clat-an'-clay (obsol.) for s.Sc. and Jam.2 gives simply clats. Also used attrib.Edb. 1843 J. Ballantine Gaberlunzie's Wallet xii.:
O ken ye aald Janet's bit hamilt made biggin, The wa's stievely sowther'd wi' gude claut an' clay?
Bwk. 1780 Session PapersJohnston v. Robertson (July) 14: 
William Darling also cut some fir trees for putting up a clat and clay chimney.
Rxb. a.1860 J. Younger Autobiog. (1881) xx.:
We . . . fitted up the old barn, stable, and byre for dwelling-houses with claut and clay chimneys and partitions.

[Prob. from cat and clay (see Cat, n.3 (2)), with l inserted for alliteration. Cf., however, the old military term clate (Med.Lat. cleta), a hurdle of wattle-work, used “to cover Lodgments overhead with much Earth heap'd on them” (1711 Military and Sea Dict. (N.E.D.)).]

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"Claut An Clay n. phr.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 15 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/claut_and_clay>

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