Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

‡FOWERERN, n. Also fowerere(e)n, -earn, fourareen, -a(e)rin. A boat rowed with four oars (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.; Sh.¹⁰ 1953). Also used attrib.Sh. 1883 J. R. Tudor Ork. and Sh. 134:
The smaller boats, fourareens, going about half the distance, ten to thirty miles, lay and haul their lines every day.Sh. 1898 W. F. Clark Northern Gleams 37:
Da boat wis little gritter dan a fower-er-een.Sh. 1922 J. Inkster Mansie's Röd 119:
Bi dis time da men wis fix'd da twa fowereen [sic] staangs 'at Geordie Moad wis taen frae da banks fir haandspiks.Sh. 1939 A. C. O'Dell Hist. Geog. Sh. 315:
There were at the beginning of the [nineteenth] century about 459 sixerns or their equivalents (counting two fourareens as equivalent to one sixern).Sh. 1990 Observer 11 Mar :
More of the islands' sea-going history could be read in the voe behind, in the beached Shetland model fourareens whose lines faintly echo their Viking ancestry.