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

Ha He Hi Ho Hy

Hol Hom Hor Hos

horning, letters of

one of the forms of diligence; the comparatively mild one. Takes the form (as they generally do) of a letter in the monarch’s name under the signet seal, which is sent to a law officer instructing him to charge someone who has defaulted on an agreement to pay or perform what he had agreed within a set time under pain of being denounced rebel and ‘put to the horn’. It opens the way for the action by which the defaulter’s moveable property can escheat to the Crown in theory and in fact be sold to satisfy the complainer in practice. See poinding.