A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1558-1675
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Pultro(u)n, -run, Polt-, Poultro(u)n, n. Also: pultrone. (e.m.E. pultrowne (Skelton), poltron (a1592), (appar. orig. with stress on the initial syllable), ‘spiritless coward, mean-spirited worthless wretch’ (OED), F. poltron (MF (1509) poultron) ‘a knaue, rascall, … dastard, coward, … base idle fellow' (Cotgr.), f. Ital. poltrone, whence also med. L. pultro, pultronem (c1220 in Du Cange).) Also attrib.(a) 1561 Q. Kennedy Compendious Ressonyng (ed.) 171/21.
Haif we nocht seyn in oure dayes ane bletour stert vp to be ane bischop, ane awn to be ane abbote, ane pultroun to be ane priour 1561 Ib. 171/27.
Sua lang as we haif … sic prowd pultrouns to be oure priowris 1558-66 Knox I 235.
That pultron and vyle knave Davie was justlie punished 1584 in Calderwood IV 113.
[The Duke of Lennox] called me pultron, villane, mischant, with manie other injurious words a1605 Montg. Ch. & Slae 360 (W).
Fortune helps the hardie ay, And pultrones plaine repellis a1605 Id. Son. xxiv 4.
A peltrie pultron poysond vp with pryde 1627 Dumbarton B. Rec. 22.
The said John … tuik the pay frae him and callit him a pultroun 1632 Lithgow Trav. (1632) 509 table.
A French pultrone, playing the palliard 1637 Baillie I 44. 1641 Ib. 357.
If Castilion be routed, and Lorrain played the false pultron 1645 Ib. II 281.(b) c1610 Melville Mem. 16.
Bot when the Landgraue cryed out vpon him, calling him schelm, poltroun, traitour(c) ?c1675 J. Gordon Hist. II 279.
Ther canon would macke them all arrant poultrons, since all ther confidence was in ther canon shott at a distaunce, and no body durst sett onattrib. c1590 Fowler I 48/23.
That murderer adulterer that poltroun paliard preist 1591–2 St. A. B. Ct. 10 March.
To hawe done wrong in calling of the said Jhone ane creill carll and ane pultrun carll
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"Pultron n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 16 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/pultroun>
