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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

MODEL, n. Also Sc. form ¶moddle (Sc. 1829 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1855) II. 278).

1. Sc. usage: An exact likeness or replica, the “image” (Sh. 1963). Obs. in Eng.Slk. 1824 Hogg Justified Sinner 138:
The likeness to my late hapless young master is so striking, that I can hardly believe it to be a chance model.Kcb. 1899 Crockett Anna Mark lii.:
He minds me o' Sir James — the very model of Sir James.

2. In phr. model lodging house, often in reduced form model, a hostel for the homeless, orig. one set up under strict rules by various philanthropists in the 19th century.Gsw. 1962 Bill McGhee Cut and Run 37:
As we passed the male and female 'models' in Green dyke Street, the meth-mopping men and women who sat around the grass verge of the particular part of Glasgow Green...Gsw. 1962 Bill McGhee Cut and Run 185:
But Ben lay there oblivious. Unaware, too, that half of this friends, if such they could be called, were being turned out of their beds by the police, and that the 'models' (the lodging-houses) and the coffee-stalls were now being methodically but belatedly searched.wm.Sc. 1974 Roddy McMillan The Bevellers 63:
Ye listen tae him ye'll end up in Carrick Street Model.wm.Sc. 1975 William McIlvanney Docherty (1985) 77:
'Who is he?' Tam asked. 'He's leevin' in the Model.' The Model Lodging House was situated at the opposite end of Soulis Street from High Street. It catered for a mixed migrant clientele, mainly labourers.Edb. 1979 Colin Douglas The Houseman's Trilogy (1985) 402:
'Terrible, son. Havnae seen spit like it since one o' my mates died in the model.'Gsw. 1985 Michael Munro The Patter 46:
Model lodging house A hostel for the single homeless, often shortened to model: 'Ye can go an stay in the model for aw Ah care.'Gsw. 1987 Matt McGinn McGinn of the Calton 22:
Then too there were the sights around the pubs and the model lodging house where the Bad Men came from afar to look for the Bad Women of the 'Model', sights which I tried to recapture in one of my songs, 'The Gallowgate Calypso'.Edb. 1991:
They've privatized aw the models in the Grassie [Grassmarket] now.Gsw. 1992 Thomas Healey Rolling 37:
I now wanted beer. A gallon at least. But if I hit the beer it hit me back and I ended in the model. Penniless. You slept with your shoes, only I didn't know on the first night, and the next day I was barefoot. It was the lowest I'd been, barefoot in the model, and first begging the modeller's something to eat.

Deriv: modeller, a person who lives in a model.Gsw. 1966 Archie Hind The Dear Green Place (1984) 65:
Afterwards he went to the old library and sat in the reading-room among the old-aged pensioners and modellers.Gsw. 1985 Michael Munro The Patter 46:
model lodging house ... Someone who lives in a model is known as a modeller. Gsw. 1991 John Burrowes Mother Glasgow 18:
The jungle had been great training for staying in a place like the Lawmoor Street model. The 'modellers' were in the main harmless enough when you saw them during the day, their world being a fuzz created by the weird concoctions they drank of methylated spirits, metal and shoe polishes, colognes and fortified wine made in England from tankered grape ferment spiked with cheap raw spirits.Gsw. 1992 Thomas Healy Rolling 37:
It was the lowest I'd been, barefoot in the model, and first begging the modeller's something to eat.