Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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

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First published 1971 (DOST Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

(Nice-,) Nyce-, Nysenes, n. [e.m.E. nyse- (c 1530), nise-. niceness, etc.] Hauteur, stand-offishness; reserve, caution. — 1561 Cal. Sc. P. I. 595.
[You write that you found such] strangenes and nycenes [in St. Cosme touching] thentervew [that, etc.] 1572 Sat. P. xxxiii. 84.
My coller rent is be Dame Fremitnes The prenis thairof ar reft be sad Nysenes c1610 Melville Mem. 332.
He wald declaire the matter vnto the Constable vnder promyse of gret secresie causing the Constable be this nycenes to suspect some practyse