Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1718, 1828-1830, 1884
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SCALE, n.1 Also skale, skail(l), and derivs. scailack, skyello. Sc. usages of Eng. scale, a shallow pan or dish.
1. A shallow drinking-bowl, a scoop, “a thin shallow vessel, resembling a saucer, made of tin or wood, for skimming the cream off milk” (s.Sc. 1825 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Lnk., Rxb. 1969), “a plate used for lifting meal” (Ork. 1929 Marw.). Dim. forms scailack, a scoop or pan used for filling a vessel from a well (Inv. 1958), skyello, a tin cup or little bowl (Ork. 1929 Marw.).Ork. 1718 Sheriff Ct. Rec. MS.:
Item ane Chopin skaill.Sc. 1828 Proud Lady Margaret in Child Ballads (1956) I. 429:
There's ale into the birken scale, Wine in the horn green.
†2. A loaf, from the scale in which the flour was weighed, prob. short for scale-loaf.Mry. 1830 Elgin Liter. Mag. 233:
A good number of years ago when the quartern loaf was selling at sixpence, Tam took it into his head one pension day to purchase a “twelvepenny scale”, (a shilling loaf,) the colossal dimensions of which will be easily imagined by the reader.
3. A hundred-weight.Inv. 1884 Crofters' Comm. Evid. I. 202:
We pay for sea-weed at the rate of 30s. per ton of kelp, or 1s. 6d. the cwt. or scale we call it.
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"Scale n.1". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/scale_n1>
