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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BIEN, BEIN, adj. and v. Also bean, boon. [bin]

I. adj.

1. In good condition. Gen.Sc.Ags. 1928 A. Gray Gossip 31:
But I'm hale and bien For ane that's wearin' near his lang rest noo.
Lnl. 1890 A. M. Bisset Spring Blossoms 14:
Baith lads an' lasses, bien an' braw, Wi' cheeks as red's the rowan.
Lnk. 1930 T. S. Cairncross in Scots Mag. (Jan.) 301:
He sees me stap in a' trig and bein To tak' the Beuk and let mysel' be seen.
Ayr. 1892 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage, etc., and Poems 175:
An' syne when we're dune wi' the leading, An' a' things comes bien to the birn, Our laird he sits king o' the feeding.
Rxb. 1847 H. S. Riddell Poems 5:
And I've some chips [of wood] baith bien and dry, That I'll fetch in a minute.

2. Of a person: well-to-do, well-off. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems 247:
He sees the Bites [sharpers] grow bein, as he grows bare.
Sc. 1857 Tait's Mag. (May) 270:
A boon looking farmer, who was said to be rich.
Abd.(D) 1916 G. Abel Wylins fae my Wallet 133:

O Lord, but I've been greedy — . . . Oonfair to bien an' needy.
Abd. 1990 Stanley Robertson Fish-Hooses (1992) 138:
The feeling wis guid but it wis tae be short lived. For ye see, whin he entered his designated compartment there wis a bean rannie pottach wi a saft tweed hat already sitting coochted.
Slg. 1932 W. D. Cocker Poems 20:
His maister was a bein auld laird.
Edb. 1843 J. Ballantine Gaberlunzie's Wallet iv.:
The tradesmen and merchants . . . were all of the class called “bien bodies,” men who lived within their incomes, and maintained perfect integrity in all their business transactions.
wm.Sc. 1980 Anna Blair The Rowan on the Ridge 43:
Andrew Sillars was from quite a bien family in Dreghorn. His father's cot was superior to most and had a second room to the living room, a well-furnished spence. The byre was built on and separated from the house by a stone wall ...
Rnf. 1878 C. Fleming Poems 248:
Young lairds, and ither chaps that's bien.

3. Cosy, comfortable, comfortable-looking. Gen.Sc. Also in deriv. bienly.Sc. 1887 R. L. Stevenson Underwoods 80:
A' simmer day, your chimleys reek, Couthy and bien.
Sc. 1991 R. Crombie Saunders in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 29:
The shilpit mune of autumn
Keeks wanly thro the mirk,
The manse stauns bien and doucelik
In the yaird ablow the kirk.
Abd. 1824 G. Smith Douglas 47:
We've house an' hame, forby a bein fire-side, Wives, weans, an' bonny lasses, a' to guide.
m.Sc. 1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood xi.:
It's a quiet bien bit, wi' douce folk weel agreed.
m.Sc. 1979 William J. Tait in Joy Hendry Chapman 23-4 (1985) 37:
O Sydney man,
Ye're a sair miss! I mind ae nicht -
A nicht! This same oongoadly oor
Whan my een caught my watch, but black
An frost-gript oot, tho bein within.
Fif. 1998 Tom Hubbard Isolde's Luve-Daith 4:
Tristan, We twa cuid never blume in a bien bield
Owerhung wi caunopies an taupestries.
Knr. 1925 “H. Haliburton” Horace in Homespun 252:
An' swallow'd up — it's e'en a sair joke — The bien bit crofties o' the puir folk.
Bwk. 1879 W. Chisholm Poems 104:
Amang the blankets in my lair I'll sleep fu' bien.
Gsw. 1877 A. G. Murdoch Laird's Lykewake 182:
The bairnies an' ance they were up Will mak' us baith bienly and blest.
Rxb. 1847 H. S. Riddell Poems 203:
But, bien aye and blythe, was the hame o' my father.

4. Well-stocked (of a house). Gen.Sc.Sc. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Shepherd Act I. Sc. i. in Poems (1728):
Were your bien Rooms as thinly stock'd as mine.
Lnl. 1832–1895 A. Hamilton in Poets and Poetry of Lnlshire (ed. Bisset 1896) 187:
Her hoosie sae tidy, sae cosy and clean, Wi' a' thing in order, and aumrie fu' bien.
Edb. 1772 R. Fergusson Sc. Poems (1925) 70:
Tho' jillet Fortune scoul and quarrel, And keep me frae a bien beef barrel.
Ayr. [1836] J. Ramsay Woodnotes of a Wanderer (1845) 218:
Yet his rigs are weel till'd, an' fu' bein his stackyard, Sic a fell chiel is Sandy, that wons in the Aird.

5. Pleasant.Sc.(E) 1925 “H. McDiarmid” Sangschaw 25:
The bien nicht haps Your bonnie form attour.
Rnf. 1815 W. Finlayson Simple Sc. Rhymes 38:
When the bien, rural, mid condition, O' life is past.
Rxb.(D) 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes an Knowes 20:
Bien an braw wui skuggin shaws . . . the road gaed wundin doon.

6. Keen.Lth. 1808 Jam. s.v. bene:
People are said to be bein upon any thing that they are very fond of.

7. Combs.: (1) bien-clad, well-covered; (2) bien-like, beinlike (see quot.); (3) bien-looking, comfortable-looking.(1) Edb. 1773 R. Fergusson Sc. Poems (1925) 55:
While I shall yet on bien-clad tables stand, Bouden wi' a' the daintiths o' the land.
(2) Sc. 1825 Jam.2:
Beinlike, bien-like. Having the appearance of abundance.
(3) Sc. 1930 T. R. Barnett Autumns in Skye 125:
Well-kept, bien-looking crofts.

II. v. To render or make comfortable; to dry.Edb. 1821 W. Liddle Poems on Diff. Occasions 83:
He may keep ay his house weel bien't, When diel haet pays for't.
Rxb. 1825 Jam.2:
To render comfortable. A house is said to be bein'd, when thoroughly dried. [Watson Rxb. W.-B. (1923) gives it as obs.]

[O.Sc. bene, beine, beyn(e), adj., adv., v. As an adj. it means (1) in good condition; (2) of places, pleasant, etc.; (3) in a comfortable state; (4) liberal, generous. As a v. it means “to fill abundantly,” see Henryson Fables, The Swallow, l. 65. Fr. bien and O.N. beinn, straight, direct, have been suggested as possible origins, but there are serious objections to both.]

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"Bien adj., v.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 28 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/bien>

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