oker
a Scots term for usury; lending money at high rates of interest.
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”
open doors, letters of
a letter under the signet to do with diligence; this one empowered a messenger at arms to break open the doors of any place which contained a debtor’s goods, so that they could be poinded.
oral history
the capture of verbal personal recollections of the past; normally in audio or video recordings and often supported by written transcriptions.
original archival material
(i) primary source material such as records made and used in the course of life or business purposes; (ii) the item as it was created, rather than a copy of that item, such as photocopies.
original order
the organisation of records established by the creator of the records.
ounce
measure of weight. Used as part of the Scots Troy measurement system, from the fourteenth century onwards. For further details, see Weights.
outed minister
a minister who had been ejected from his parish.
outfield, outfeild
the more outlying and less fertile part of a farm, where the ground was seldom or never cultivated (before the introduction of enclosure and crop rotation in the 18th century)
outreach
usually used to refer to a range of activities to engage with users, identify their needs and provide services that support the aims of the archive service, such as exhibitions, workshops, talks and learning or educational programmes, through a variety of methods and media.
outredding
usually applied to someone’s ‘affairs’; it means ‘settling’
outsight plenishing
moveable property kept or lying out of doors; it would include livestock and implements like ploughs, but not corn or hay, which were not reckoned as ‘plenishings’
oversman
an umpire who was appointed to settle some matter which had gone to arbitration, but on which the arbiters had been unable to decide.
oxgang
a measure of land of about 13 acres, based on as much as could be ploughed with one ox.
oy, oye, oe
grandchild, but sometimes refers to a niece, nephew or other descendant.