• Search tip: for exact phrase use "quotation marks" or for all words use +
  • More search tips here

                  Your Scottish Archives Glossary

                  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”

                  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y

                  de facto

                  Latin term meaning ‘in fact’, or it can be applied to indicate something which has been actually done.

                  deaccession

                  the process of permanently removing accessioned items.

                  dead’s part, deid’s part

                  the part of someone’s moveable estate which they are entitled to dispose of by testament after death; see bairn’s part and jus relictae, which are the other parts.

                  dean of guild

                  the head of the guildry in a royal burgh, later also a magistrate in a police burgh (including royal burghs) with responsibility for building control until local government re-organisation in 1975 (see Knowledge Base for more details)

                  debitum fundi

                  Latin phrase meaning a ‘debt of the land’; indicates a debt secured over the land and arising directly out of it, e.g. arrears of feu-duty.

                  Decessit sine pole (DSP)

                  Latin phrase meaning ‘dies without issue’; indicates a person who died without having children, and is used in older family trees.

                  declarator

                  a form of action to have some right or interest declared by law.

                  decree of locality

                  a decree of the Teind Court, allocating what particular proportions of such a modified stipend would be paid by each of the parish heritors.

                  decree of modification

                  a decree of the Teind Court, modifying a clergyman’s stipend.

                  decree of valuation

                  a decree of the Teind Court, determining the extent and value of a heritor’s teinds.

                  decree or decreet

                  the final judgement or sentence of a court.

                  decreet arbitral

                  the award of arbiters on a point or points at issue jointly submitted to them by the parties in the dispute.

                  deed

                  in the most usual Scottish sense, a formal written document in a set form which gives the terms of an agreement, contract or obligation; normally authenticated by the author’s signature, signatures of witnesses and a testing clause; for practical purposes, any document which isn’t a sasine or concerned with the transfer of heritable property.

                  defender

                  the Scottish term for the party who is defending in a court action.

                  deforcement

                  hindering or resisting officers of the law in the course of their duty (in civil matters)

                  defunct

                  Scots term meaning the deceased person.

                  demurrage

                  allowance due to a shipmaster or shipowner for the time a ship is held up longer than usual while loading or unloading.

                  deponent

                  someone who makes a deposition before a court.

                  deposit

                  the method of transferring records to an archive service without transfer of legal title, usually to enable long-term preservation and public access; normally this is subject to a deposit agreement for an indefinite period. Many records are legally inalienable and remain the property of the body which created it or its lawful successor such as Church of Scotland records.

                  deposition

                  the testimony of a witness put down in writing.