Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

QUAIR, n. Also quar(e), quer. Sc. forms of Eng. quire. [kwe:r]

1. As in Eng., a set of twenty-four sheets of writing paper (Sc. 1818 Sawers). Comb. quair-book, a book consisting of a single quire of paper so folded as to make 16 pages, a kind of exercise book.Sc. 1700 Domestic Details Sir D. Hume (1843) 69:
A book of 3 or 4 quares of paper.Sc. 1700 Edb. Gazette (23–6 Sept.):
Dropt or Lost, a Quair Book in Ottavo, Bound end wayes, about a third of it written in short hand, of little use to any but the Owner.Edb. 1710 Burgh Rec. Edb. (1967) 199:
Each quair of new papers or pamphlets sixteen shillings per quair.Per. 1737 Ochtertyre Ho. Bk. (S.H.S.) 19, 32:
For a pound of hoaps and a quer paper . . . 2s 2d For two quers of course paper . . . 6d.

2. By extension: any literary work, orig. one that might occupy a quire of paper, a book or piece of writing of any length. Now only liter. and prob. as a reminiscence of The Kingis Quair of James I. c.1423.Sc. 1952 Scots Mag. (Jan.) 270:
There's some that tae their ingle cast Their e'en, an' wi' some learned quair, Tak' tent tae pree their leisure tame.Sc. 1958 K. Wittig Sc. Tradition 330:
In his trilogy A Scots Quair [1932–4] J. Leslie Mitchell produced the most ambitious single effort in Scottish fiction.