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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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KENSPECKLE, adj., n. Also kenspickle (Uls. 1931 Northern Whig (11 Dec.) 13), kenspeckled (Fif. c.1875; Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.), kenspreckte (Abd.¹⁵ 1928), kinsprekle, kent-speckle (Ayr. 1822 Galt Provost xxxviii.), and the syncopated or erron. form kensple. [Sc. ′kɛnspɛkl, Abd. + -sprɪ̢kl]

I. adj. 1. Easily recognisable, conspicuous, of familiar appearance. Gen.Sc. Also in n.Eng. dial.Abd. p.1768 A. Ross Works (S.T.S.) 180:
For we that's gentle fouks for ever sud Kinsprekle be for ilka thing that's good.Ayr. 1795 Burns Letters (Ferguson) No. 670:
My phiz is sae kenspeckle that the very joiner's apprentice . . . knew it at once.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xxviii.:
She had little, as she said, to make "her kenspeckle when she didna speak."Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch (1898) i.:
I have heard tell, that his speech was so Dutchified as to be scarcely kenspeckle to a Scotch European.Gsw. 1860 J. Young Poorhouse Lays 18:
Or, when at an antrin time she was seen, Nane was sae kenspeckle as Howtherin' Jean.Sh. 1879 Shetland Times (22 March):
Dis'll be da Indian nepkin he got frae his uncle. My wird, he's no sae ill kensple. I'll mebbe mak' dee gripe somebody yet.Kcb. 1894 Crockett Raiders ii.:
He had a pointed beard . . . which in a time of shaven men made him kenspeckle.Fif. 1950 Scots Mag. (Feb.) 369:
Peter Smith is a kenspeckle and popular figure in the narrow streets . . . of Cellardyke and Anstruther.wm.Sc. 1954 Robin Jenkins The Thistle and the Grail (1994) 5:
Tamas and Mysie were kenspeckle at Thistle games, she cleeking him tenderly and he droolingly proud of her rosy-cheeked bonniness. Dundee 1986 David A. MacMurchie I Remember Another Princes Street! 43:
So, another kenspeckle figure with a long pedigree passes into the history books. wm.Sc. 1989 Anna Blair The Goose Girl of Eriska 16:
He became a kenspeckle figure round the edges of the course and was soon on bonnet-lifting terms with most of the regulars. w.Lth. 2000 Davie Kerr A Puckle Poems 86:
Torphichen Gillanes, Aikens an Cooks.
Kenspeckle names still bide within. Sc. 2000 Herald 15 Jan 18:
Scottish football lost one of its more kenspeckle figures with the sudden death at his Linwood home on January 12 of Alex Wright. Abd. 2000 Sheena Blackhall The Singing Bird 1:
The mappamound it disna ken
It's thirled tae a rodden tree;
Tethered tae a kenspeckle glen,
'Twad brak its hert tae set it free.

†2. Perceptive, intelligent, knowledgeable. Rare.wm.Sc. 1827 T. Hamilton Cyril Thornton (1848) v.:
Troth, had I been ordinar kenspeckle, I might hae gathered as muckle frae yer English tongue.Sc. 1850 J. Grant Sc. Cavalier xxiii.:
Jock's gey gleg at the uptak', and mair kenspeckle than ye think.

II. n. A mark by which a person or thing may be known or recognised (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 94; Abd.⁴ 1931; Lth., Lnk. 1959).