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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GRACIE, adj. Also gracy. Full of spiritual grace; devout, virtuous, of good behaviour. See Grace.Sc. 1764 Boswell Grand Tour, Germany, etc. (Pottle 1953) 271–2:
Cazenove would have put me into a good seat [in church], but a fat old woman would not give up her place. She made me smile with her obstinate rudeness. She was just a Scots gracy auld wife.
Ags. 1825 Proverb in Jam.:
“A wife's ae dother's never gracie”; i.e. an only daughter is so much indulged, that she is never good for any thing.
w.Sc. 1825 Jam.:
“He's no very gracie,” he does not pay much regard to religion.
Ags. 1853 W. Blair Chron. Aberbrothock 79:
Them 'at cats an' dowgs dinna like are neither gude nor gracy.
Sc.(E) 1913 H. P. Cameron Imit. Christ i. xx.:
Nevir hecht yersel sickerness i' this life, hooevir guid a monk or gracie a hermit ye kythe.
Ork.5 1953:
The phr. no very gracie is used here of people or animals who are awkward or bad-tempered.

Hence ¶gracilie, adv., devoutly.Sc.(E) 1913 H. P. Cameron Imit. Christ i. xxii.:
The innart man is muckle fash'd i' this warl' wi' the ca's o' the bouk. An' tharfor the prophet gracilie prays tae be quat o' thame as faur as he can.

 Used as n. with def. art.: virtuous people, the devout. Sc. c.1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) III. 206:
If Jean might, very likely, fa with wean 'twad, with the gracie, sink his credit.

 [From grace. Cf. obs. Eng. gracy, evangelical, used by Pepys of a Presbyterian, 1661.]

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"Gracie adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 26 Apr 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/gracie>

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