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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

COWAN, Cowane, Cowaner, n.¹ [′kʌuən(ər)]

1. A mason who builds dry-stone dikes and walls (Sc. 1813 N. Carlisle Topog. Dict. Scot., Gl. l.). Gen. used contemptuously of one who does the work of a mason without having served an apprenticeship (Sc. 1808 Jam.). “Cowaner is the only term used in this sense in Loth.” (Jam.²). Known to Abd.⁹, Fif.¹⁰ 1940.Ags. 1818 in Edb. Mag. (Aug.) 127/2:
The walls of the dwelling house are, perhaps, mason work, but the other buildings are reared by . . . cowans (common labourers), with clay instead of lime for mortar.wm.Sc. [1835–37] Laird of Logan (1868) 173:
Peter McCorkle was a kind of half-bred mason, or “cowan,” as the country folks call them, who had never served a regular apprenticeship, and did not pretend to execute any ornamental piece of masonry.Arg. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XIV. 148–149:
There are of artificers in the parish [Kilninian] . . . 6 cowans, or dry stone builders.Ayr. 1704 Corshill Baron Court Bk. in Arch. & Hist. Coll. Ayr. & Wgt. (1884) IV. 205:
James Thomsone, younger, cowane in Stewartoune.

2. Extended uses: (1) In freemasonry: one who is outside the brotherhood (Abd.² (Deeside) 1940) and “who would wish to know the mysteries of free masonry, without being regularly initiated” (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 143).Sc. 1755 Scots Mag. (March) 133:
Immediately after that oath, the administrator of it says, “You sat down a cowan, I take you up a mason.”Bnff. 1880 J. F. S. Gordon Chrons. of Keith 173:
The “Tyler” of the Lodge has a drawn sword to enable him to guard against all cowans and eavesdroppers.Kcb. 1789 D. Davidson Seasons 38:
The Deil being naething but a cowan To make him free o' plumb an' trowan They [witches] gethered a' about a gowan.

(2) An unskilled or uninitiated person; an amateur, a bungler. Also used attrib. and in adj. comb. cowan-hearted, chicken-hearted (used absolutely in quot.).Abd.⁵ 1931:
Man, I'm a nae-ill han' at the ploo, an' can dee something wi' a horse, bit I'm a cowan at managin' nowte beas'.Ags. 1818 W. Gardiner Poems 17:
An' mouldy parts on weavers' souen, Ye say are heaps o' planties growin'; Whilk seemeth strange to me, a cowan.Gsw. 1856 J. Strang Gsw. Clubs 416:
This tavern — shut off from the observation and the ken of the “cowan” world.s.Sc. 1835–40 J. M. Wilson (ed.) Tales of the Borders (1857–59) V. 194:
But I hae been . . . a defender o' the cowan-hearted.