Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BALAAM, prop.n. Sc. usage: second-rate material kept in reserve in manuscript or type by a printer or publisher to be used only when needed to fill a gap in a newspaper or magazine or in case-room work. Hence comb. balaam-box, a box in which this sort of copy or type, rejected material, etc., was kept (Edb. 1975). Also in U.S. usage.Sc. 1825 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1855) I. 7, 148:
It's a horrible thing to be buried alive in the Balaam Box! . . . On opening Balaam, last year, we had neglected to put weight on the lid, . . . and the jammed-down articles, as if discharged from a culverin, wafted destruction around. Sc. 1826 Scott Letters M. Malagrowther III. 3:
How much Balaam (speaking technically) I have edged out of your valuable paper. Sc. 1861 A. K. H. Boyd Recreations II. 59:
Publishing articles which are at present consigned to the Balaam-box.

[The usage appears to have originated with Messrs Blackwood and Sons, Publishers, Edinburgh, no doubt in allusion to the Biblical story of Balaam (Numbers xxii.) and the speech of an ass.]