Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TORTIE, n. Also torty-; ¶tottie. Sc. forms of Eng. tortoise. Hence tortieshell, tortyshell, -shall, of a tortoiseshell colour. Gen.Sc.Ork. 1722 in H. Marwick Merchant Lairds (1936) I. 101:
A drume and two drume sticks, ane box with ane [toy] tortie and a man felling a ox, a fine watch and a key.Ags. 1894 J. B. Salmond My Man Sandy (1899) 7:
The he tortyshall kitlin'.Abd. 1932 D. Campbell Bamboozled 54:
He hiz fower legs, a lang tail, an' a tottie-shell skin.Abd. 1995 Flora Garry Collected Poems 19:
I min' ae nicht, fin straikin ye,
Yer coat o yalla tortyshell
Ceest on the air a balmy smell,
Its sweet reek yoamt aa ower me.