Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

AVAL(D), Avel(l), Yaavel, (Y)avil, Yaval, n.², adj.², v. See Awal(d), n.

1. n. A crop sown the second year on the same field. See also Yaval.Abd. 1734 Monymusk Papers (1945) 29:
Ferm meal, made of totch avald and intoun corns.Kcb. 1828 W. McDowall Poems 25:
My avell's struck wi' poverty Like a sour boggy stank.

2. adj. (See quots.)Ork. 1929 Marw.:
Yaavel land or crop, stubble-land (after a cereal crop) which is sown with a cereal crop a second time consecutively. [Prob. borrowed from ne.Sc.]ne.Sc. 1881 W. Gregor Folk-Lore North-East Scot. 179:
The next crop [i.e. the second from lea] was also of oats and was named the “yaavel crap.” . . . The land was then manured and sown with bere.Mry. 1825 Jam.²:
Yavil, the second crop after lea.w.Sc. 1869 J. C. Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 720:
An avald crop is the second white crop in succession on the same land.Gall. 1825 Jam.²:
Awald-crap, the second crop after lea . . . Avil, Galloway.Gall.¹ 1914:
An avel crop = the second white crop in succession of a rotation.

3. v. (See quot.)Kcb.¹ 1925:
To aval a field, is to take a second crop of corn off it.

4. In transferred senses: (1) yavil-bachelor, a widower (Gregor D.Bnff. (1866) 213); (2) yaval broth, “second day's broth,” T.S.D.C. I. (1914) 15 (the form yaval being there given for Abd., Bnff., Mry.).