A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1983 (DOST Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1521-1589, 1646-1689
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Peper-, Pepir-, Pepper-quern, -curn, n. Also: peppir- and -quhern, -queirn, -quorne; -kurne, -cuirn, -corn. [Late north. ME. pepir qwern (1402–3), late ME. pepyr wherne, pepirwherne (Prompt. Parv.), north. e.m.E. peper querne (1564), e.m.E. pepper quern (1656), and in the later Sc. dial.] A manually operated machine for grinding pepper, a peppermill.Usually plur., sometimes in sing. concord, but chiefly in a pair (= set) of peper quernis.(1) 1521–2 Old Dundee II. 239.
A pair of pepir quernys 1561 Aberd. B. Rec. I. 336.
Ane pair of peper curnis 1563 Dumfries B. Ct. fol. 189.
Ane pair of pepir quernis 1570 Protocol Book of A. Millar 4 b.
Pepir queirnis 1571–2 Canongate Ct. Bk. 354.
Pepper cuirnis 1589 St. A. B. Ct. 10 June.
Ane pair off auld pepper kurneis with ane auld fute gang 1646 Edinburgh Testaments LXI. 266 b.
Ane pair of peppercornes(2) 1534 Selkirk B. Ct. (ed.) 144.
The peper quhernes(3) 1571 Misc. Spald. C. II. 79.
Four pepper quernis price vi ss. viii d. 1576 Edinburgh Testaments IV. 154 b.
Ane dozane of pepper quernis price xij s.(4) 1583 Elgin Rec. I. 172.
Ane peppircornis(5) 1689 Brechin Testaments VII. 211.
A pepper quorne iij s.
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"Pepper-quern n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/pepper_quern>
