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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Byar(e, Byer, n. Also: biar, bayare, -er. [ME. byar (Caxton), bier (Cursor), f. By v.] A buyer, purchaser.(a) 14.. Acts I. 305/2.
For a last of fresche heryng … gif thai be led thrw the byar that byis thaim Ib. 334/2.
Be the quhilkis the byaris ar schathit c1420 Wynt. v. 854.
Sellarys ma than byarys ware 1436 Edinb. B. Rec. I. 5.
Thai byares sall pay the merchant at thai haif bocht at 1469 Acts II. 94/2.
And it happin the byare to sell again the samyn land 1500 Buccleuch Mun. II. 100.
Becaus I fande na redy byaris of thaim, I causit thaim to be prisit [etc.] 1529 Edinb. B. Rec. II. 3.
[They] sall be frie to sell thame … on quhat pryce thai and the byare can agrie thairvpon 1531 Bell. Boece I. p. lviii.
Gif the samin be nocht done, the biar will nocht stand to the contract of merchandice 1553 Edinb. B. Rec. II. 179.
The samin to be eschete to the sellar and xviij s. of the byar 1582 St. A. Baxter Bks. 130.
That the byar tak na compositiounis 1594 Conv. Burghs I. 440.
Persouns … resorting to the harbery of Craill, byares and lossares of schips, … , or laidining thairof thairin 1611 Ib. II. 327.
All heyring [= herring] to be mett thairwith and delyuerit to the byares 1657 Maxwell Mem. II. 290.
The leait bayare of thos landes(b) a 1568 Sempill Sat. P. xlviii. 79.
With mony grit aith thay sell this same claith, To gar the byeris cum agane 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. i. 51 b.
The price sould be given as debt to the seller, and the thing bocht to the byer 1657 Balfour Ann. ii. 155.
The gentrie, bayers of tythes