The Your Scottish Archives Glossary defines archaic words and phrases, mostly Scots law terminology, commonly found in documents and records in Scotland’s archives. If you think a word or phrase should be added to the glossary, or an existing entry could be defined better, please contact us at your@scottisharchives.org.uk.
You can also use the Dictionary of the Scots Language as a further resource at https://dsl.ac.uk/ for Scots words and phrases (including legal terminology).
To find a term within the glossary, click on the initial letter of the word you are looking for, then select the relevant syllable segment displayed below.
Example: to find the term “roup” select section “R” then sub-section “Ro”
the means of making archives discoverable by users, consisting of descriptions linked to reference codes enabling users to find relevant items and request sight of these items. Catalogues usually contain additional information to support management of the collections, including information about the provenance, custodial history, rights management, preservation and legal status, some of which may be confidential to the archive service.