Author Topic: Old (Scots?) Word  (Read 1193 times)

Offline sonofthom

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Old (Scots?) Word
« on: Tuesday 15 August 17 13:29 BST (UK) »
I have discovered an article written in Edinburgh in 1684 describing the execution of an ancestor. There is one word that is new to me and that I cannot find in the dictionary - "snape"; the context is "snaped a gun at them" so it presumably means fired or pointed but as I have never encountered this word before any help would be appreciated.
Sinclair: Lanarkshire & Antrim; McDougall: Bute; Ramsay: Invernesshire; Thomson & Robertson: Perthshire; Brown: Argyll; Scott: Ayrshire: Duff: Fife.

Offline shanghaipanda

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Re: Old (Scots?) Word
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 15 August 17 13:45 BST (UK) »
1684 Erskine Diary 76.
Three dragoons deponed … that … one of the pannels snaped a gun at them, one of the soldiers alledging it was not snaped but presented only;

from http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/snap_v

Offline KGarrad

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Re: Old (Scots?) Word
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 15 August 17 13:50 BST (UK) »

snape
v.

also sneap, "to be hard upon, rebuke, revile, snub," early 14c., from Old Norse sneypa "to outrage, dishonor, disgrace," probably related to similar-sounding words meaning "cut" (cf. snip (v.)). Verbal meaning "bevel the end (of a timber) to fit an inclined surface" is of uncertain origin or connection. Snaiping "rebuking, reproaching, reviling" is attested from early 14c.
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)

Offline sonofthom

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Re: Old (Scots?) Word
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 15 August 17 14:06 BST (UK) »
Thanks for the speedy replies - much appreciated. I wasn't aware of the online Scots dictionary so this will be an excellent resource for me. Shanghaipanda the passage you quote is from the book I had been reading . He is describing the trial and execution of three Covenanters one of whom is my ancestor Thomas Harkness.
Sinclair: Lanarkshire & Antrim; McDougall: Bute; Ramsay: Invernesshire; Thomson & Robertson: Perthshire; Brown: Argyll; Scott: Ayrshire: Duff: Fife.


Offline hdw

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Re: Old (Scots?) Word
« Reply #4 on: Monday 28 August 17 21:05 BST (UK) »
I imagine it's a variant of "snipe", as in "sniper". I'm not sure what the older meaning of snipe was, but it may just have meant 'to shoot'.

Harry