Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Southward, -wart, adv. (n.). Also: sowth-, sowith-, sutht- and -wartt, -wort, -vard, -ert. [ME and e.m.E. suðward (Layamon), south-ward (c1290), sowth-ward (Chaucer), OE súðweard.]

A. adv. Towards the south; in a southerly direction. 1375 Barb. xiv 250.
Thai southwart [C. southwardis] thar wayis raid 1396 Sc. Ant. XIV 217.
The forsayde erle sal aseth hym of swa mykl faylyheys in conabyl place fra the month southward c1515 Asl. MS I 242/18.
The king him self passit on southwart with the ost 1509–10 Edinb. B. Rec. I 126.
It contenis … fra hir heid yard dike southwart twa rudes and ane half rude and v feet of mesure in breide 1529 Red Bk. Grandtully I 70.
Fra the front of the hill … suthtwart to the month 1544 Sel. MSS Q. Mary 16.
I do pray yow to hald him still with your lordschip self and nocht to send him sowithwort [sc. to attend school] 1596 Dalr. I 30/9. 1603 Reg. Great S. 506/1.
Passand ovir the streit … southwart to the loch 1652 Aberd. Sheriff Ct. III 66.
In respect of the said James his inability to repair southvard [sc. to Edinburgh] 1654 Descr. Zetland 56.
Two rich conigares; the one in the holes of Mean southward, & the other in the Links of Meal northward

B. noun. The direction towards the south. 1585 Echt-Forbes Chart. 123.
Fra the saidis stanes … wpwart throw the reisk to the sowthwartt 16… Macfarlane's Geog. Coll. II 208.
The country of Renfrew to the southert is both mountainous and moorish