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

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

Superfice, -face, -ficies, n. [ME and e.m.E. superfice (Chaucer), superficies (1530), superfyce (1542), OF superfice, -ficie (late 12th c. and c1265 in Larousse), L. superficiēs.]

1. The outer surface (of a body or object).(a) 1549 Compl. 55/25.
The superfice of ane grit roundnes hes ane largear aspect touart ane roundnes of ane les quantite, nor ane smal roundnes can hef touart ane grit roundnes 1549 Compl. 56/1. 1592 Acts III 557/2.
The possessouris of the landis … being alwayes satisfijt … for the damage quhilk heirby [sc. by mining] they sall sustene in this superfice of thair ground 1587-99 Hume 28/93.
The fields, and earthly superfice, With verdure greene is spread 1607 Reg. Privy C. VII 358.
[On condition of his] satisfeing the awnair of the ground for the superfice of the same ground without ony respect to the mettallis being thairin ?1613 W. Alexander Doomes-day iv 89.
Those whom of th'earth the superfice as forc'd Did beare, not bury, suffer, not receive c1646 Craufurd Edinb. Univ. 56.
At the Trone … the Mount Parnassus was reared up in a vaste frame of timber, the superfice representing all the varieties of roks, and vegetables which are to be sene on mountaines 1646 J. Hope Diary (1958) 172.
I did not see the vaine nor how it lyes, only I … was informed that they find it [sc. copperas] within 2 or 3 fathomes of the superfice c1680 W. Row Blair 138.
She was carried down softly floating above the superfice of the water(b) 1674 Edinb. B. Rec. X 200.
The nether bed of the baisse of the pillars shall be equall with the superface of the Hie Streit 1675 Edinb. B. Rec. X 427.
Ane lairge cistern … sex foots in deepnes from the nether face of the arch … to the superface of the pavement therof(c) 1669 Edinb. B. Rec. X 67.
Ther is great abuse … done … by severall persones that tirrs and flaes ther ground by takeing of the superficies theroff great long truffs for covering of graves

2. In law: A building erected on a piece of ground which belongs to a different owner. 1677 M. P. Brown Suppl. Decis. III 213.
James Bayne, the wright having undertaken the rebuilding of one of those burnt tenements … upon this condition that he should possess it … while he were reimbursed; he … pursues the relict … to give him the keys, though she stood infeft in the ground of the tenement viz. before it was burnt. The Lords found she was not bound to remove summarily; but behoved to be warned, though the superficies was extinct

3. An instance of superficiality; outward appearance as distinct from real nature. 1653 Binning Wks. 591.
It is but at the best a superfice, an external garb drawn over the countenance a1684 Leighton Wks. (1868) 160.
This courteousness is not contrary to that evil, only in the superfice and outward behaviour