Show Search Results Show Browse

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Quotation dates: 1721, 1816

[0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]

†BLACK OX, n. “The black ox is said to tramp on one who has lost a near relation by death, or met with some severe calamity” (Sc. 1825 Jam.2).Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 327:
The black Ox never trod on your Foot. You never had the Care of a Family upon you, nor was press'd with severe Business or Necessities.Sc. 1816 Scott Antiquary xl.:
The black ox has tramped on ye since I was aneath your roof-tree.

[Cf. Black Cow. The black ox is referred to as above in Heywood's Eng. Proverbs 1562 (ed. J. S. Farmer 1906), in Lyly's Sapho 1584, in J. Ray's Collection of Eng. Proverbs (1678), 263, in Rob. Nares' Glossary 1822 (ed. Halliwell and Wright). The Greeks employed a somewhat similar metaphor when they spoke of a great ox treading on one's tongue, to express an enforced silence, see Liddell and Scott Gr. Dict. s.v. βους]

You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.

"Black Ox n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 18 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/black_ox>

3191

snd

Hide Advanced Search

Browse SND:

    Loading...

Share: