Show Search Results Show Browse

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CORTER, Korter, n. A piece of oat-cake, a quarter of a round. ne.Sc. [′kɔrtər]Abd.(D) 1755 R. Forbes Jnl. from London 28:
An honester fellow never brack the nook o' a corter.
Abd.(D) 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb viii.:
That's a piece o' the kitchie kyaaks. . . . Is there mair o't? Eh aye — here's twa korters.
Abd. 1988 Jack Webster Another Grain of Truth (1989) 29:
I willingly joined in the ritual of 'milk-an-breid', which amounted to a bowl of milk, into which a corter of oatcakes was broken and supped in heary spoonfuls by young men who wanted to grow up with mush [sic] on their arms.

Phrs.: (1) corter o' breid, id. (Bnff.2 1937); (2) croon o' the corter, the right-angled (i.e. top) corner of an oat-eake (Id.); fig. “the principal or best part of any thing” (Abd. 1825 Jam.2).(1) Bch. 1940 C. Gavin Hostile Shore x.:
But I winna lay doon the makkin' o' a girdle scone or a corter o' breid to ony white-faced woman.
(2) Abd.15 1930:
It's ull mennirs, loon, te brak the croon o' the corter.

[From Eng. quarter. Cf. Co' for quo(th), etc.]

You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.

"Corter n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 29 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/corter>

7463

snd

Hide Advanced Search

Browse SND:

    Loading...

Share: