domicills
household goods
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”
dominium directum
Latin phrase meaning ‘the direct lordship’; the interest which a feudal superior had in property, like the right to feu duties, casualties and other rights.
dominium utile
Latin phrase meaning ‘the lordship by usage’; the interest which a feuar had in landed property, that is, the right to direct usage and enjoyment of the income from the land.
donation (or gift)
archival papers or collections which are given outright to an archival repository with transfer of legal title (and without any fee or other compensation)
doom
a judgement or sentence. ‘Falsing the doom’ was to make a protest against a judgement, before taking the matter to a higher court.
doomster
the public executioner, who, at one time, pronounced sentence.