Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TULCHAN, n. Also tulchane, -in, -can; †tourkin. [′tʌlxən]

1. A calf-skin stuffed with straw set beside a cow to induce her to give her milk freely (Sc. 1808 Jam.), specif. the skin of her own calf, in which a living calf might be wrapped to encourage the cow to foster it, applied sim. occas. also to a ewe and a lamb. Comb. tourkin-calf, -lamb (n.Sc. 1825 Jam).Sc. 1866 D. Livingstone Last Jnls. I. 51:
The cattle of Africa never give their milk without the presence of the calf or its stuffed skin, the ‘tulchan'.

2. Fig. in Sc. Hist. usage: a substitute, a man of straw, a person nominally appointed to some office in order that the power and emoluments may be diverted to another, specif. a nickname for one of a number of bishops created in the Scottish Church in 1572 by the Regent Morton in order that he and his supporters might appropriate much of the Church's revenue. Freq. attrib. and in extended use.Sc. 1712 T. T. Curat Calder Whipt 3:
From your being the Bishops Journey-Men, mere Tulchans, undergoing the Drudgery for a small Pittance of Hire.Sc. 1731 R. Wodrow Analecta (M.C.) IV. 248:
As soon as we reformed from Praelacy and Popery, the First Book of Discipline declares against them; after Tulchan Bishops were cast out, the Second Book declares yet more against them.Dmf. 1835 Carlyle MS. Letter to his Mother (20 April):
Better than tea-ing with Queen Adelaide (poor old Touchan), had even she condescended to invite me.Lth. 1851 M. Oliphant Merkland I. vii.:
A tulchan laird — a shadow, and no substance.Sc. 1861 G. Grub Eccles. Hist. Scot. II. 226:
Those simoniacal compacts, which earned for the ecclesiastics concerned in them, the opprobrious name, so well known in our history, of Tulchan bishops.Fif. 1895 S. Tytler Kincaid's Widow iii.:
He's but a tulchan minister, a man of straw.

†3. A bag or wallet, esp. one made of skin (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.).Abd. 1754 R. Forbes Journal 23:
His skin wad mak' a gallant tulchin for you.

†4. A chubby or dwarfish child (Ags. 1808 Jam.); a large-boned, fat person (Abd.⁷ 1925), also in reduced form tulch, “a stout person of sulky, stubborn disposition” (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 200).