Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BROD, brodd, brude, n.³ Sc. forms of Eng. brood; used also in comb. with hen and sow as in St.Eng. The form brood is illustrated here only in a sense peculiar to Sc. [brɔd, brud Sc., but m.Sc. + bryd; brød Ags., I.Sc.]

†1. “A young child, the youngest of a family” (Rxb. 1825 Jam.²).Sc. [1826] R. Chambers Pop. Rhymes (1870) 24:
She'll do guid, And lay an egg to my little brude.Rxb. a.1860 J. Younger Autobiog. (1881) 6:
Look at that, and say whether you are not ashamed to let a brood like that beat you.

2. “A goose that has hatched goslings” (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.; 1914 Angus Gl.).Sh. 1932 J. M. E. Saxby Sh. Trad. Lore 195:
“Brodd,” a mother goose. . . . There was a woman who had ten children and nursed six babies in addition to her own ten. She got the nickname of “Brodda.”Ork. 1920 J. Firth Reminisc. Ork. Par. (1922) 12:
Here the brods or mother geese laid their eggs.Cai. 1849 J. T. Calder St Mary's Fair 39:
And there's of potted geese a good supply, Fed on the stubble field, fine sappy “brods.”

Hence brodie, broddy, having a brood; prolific.Bwk. 1856 G. Henderson Pop. Rhymes 81:
The auld broddy sow, That wallows in the midden hole!Rxb. 1912 Kelso Chron. (1 Nov.) 3:
They wad amaist skunner a brodie soo, let alane readers o' the Kronikle.

†3. Comb.: brodmother, brodsmother, (1) a hen that has hatched chickens; (2) the mother of a family.(1) Lth. 1825 Jam.²:
It is said of a broody hen, “She's a gude brodsmother.”(2) Ags. Ib.:
If one be about to be married to a husband, who has children by a former wife, when it is supposed that she has not the qualities requisite in a step-mother, it is commonly said, “She'll mak an ill brodmother.”