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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BEETYACH, BEETOCK, BITTO(C)K, n. (See first and second quots.) [′bitjəx]Sc. 1910 Metcalfe:
Beetock, a sword; properly a dirk or dagger carried in the hose or boot.
Crm. 1914 T.S.D.C. I. 18:
Beetyach. A small knife with shortened, fixed blade used for beeting or mending nets. “A'll pit a beetyach in ye.”
Rnf. c.1805 R. Sempill (d. c.1665) Habbie Simpson's Elegy in Paisley Repository No. XXIII.:
Hee was convoyer o' the bryde Wi' bittok hingand at his syde.
Rnf. 1821 Harp of Renfrewshire; 1929 Poems and Ballads of Kilbarchan (ed. C. P. Lyle) x.:
Wi' bittock hingand at his syde.

[The Elegy on the Piper of Kilbarchan (c.1640) appeared in Watson's Choice Collection (1706) in modernised spelling and with kittock instead of bittock. Two broadsheets of the poem in the British Museum dated ?1700 and 1690 have also a modernised spelling and kittock. The great grandson and namesake of Robert Sempill declared that Habbie called his dirk Kittock after a famous Highland reiver [sic], Coll Kittock (Paisley Misc. Mag. 1812). This later R. Sempill died at the age of 102 in 1789: so his story might come from a contemporary of Habbie or the poet. Metcalfe's beetock, wherever he found it, is of the same origin as bittock and beetyach, and derived from Gael. biodag, a dagger, the cognates of which are Welsh bidog, Irish bideōg, Lat. findo, Eng. bite (MacBain). Strathclyde-Welsh and Gael. may both have come into contact with Sc. in Rnfsh., but the unvoiced d written t in beetyach points to a Gael. rather than a Welsh origin.]

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"Beetyach n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 29 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/beetyach>

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