A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1528-1529, 1597-1699
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Lyth(e, Lyith, Lith(e, n.2 [In later Sc. and Irish dial. as lyth(e, lithe, laith, laid, lyd, lied, also (Orkney) lye, and north. Eng. (Yorks.) late, leet: appar. ON. lý-r, but the -th, -d, -t remains difficult to account for.] The pollack. 1528 Household Bks. Jas. V (Append.) 18.
Empt. xij mulones corf, ij lithis 1529 Ib. 20. 1597–8 Household Bks. Jas. VI 20 March.
Ane lythe 1598 Ib. 7 April.
Tua paidollis tua lyithis 16.. Archibald in Macfarlane's Geog. Coll. III. 194.
A blockan about the bigness of a white salmond trout, of shape and colour like the lyth, but a dryer fish 16.. Ib.
A lyth, about the bigness of a small salmon-gilse [sic] … but dark gray coloured 1684 Sibbald Scot. Illustr. ii. iii. 37.
Catalogum piscium tam marinorum quam fluviatilium & lacustrium rariorum, qui in regionibus Scotiae … reperiuntur … hayin, lyth, blockan, pillock [etc.]
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"Lyth n.2". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/lythe_n_2>
