▪ I. scone, n. orig. Sc.
(skəʊn, skɒn)
Also 6–9 scon, skon, (8 sconn).
[Perh. a shortened adoption of MDu. schoonbrot, MLG. schonbrot ‘fine bread’.
The LG. word is explained in the Bremen glossary (1771) as a sort of white loaf with two acute and two obtuse angles, and the similar schönroggen (‘fine rye’) in the Hamburg dialect denoted ‘a seed-cake with three rounded corners’. (See Grimm's Deutsches Wb. s.v. Schön.) From the latter word are MSw. skanroggä, MDa. skonroggen, Icel. skonrok ‘a biscuit’ (Vigf.).]
1. A large round cake made of wheat or barley-meal baked on a griddle; one of the four quadrant-shaped pieces into which such a cake is often cut; more generally, a soft cake of barley- or oatmeal, or wheat-flour, baked in single portions on a griddle or in an oven. Also with defining words, denoting varieties of this cake, as butter scone, potato scone, soda scone, treacle scone; brown scone, one made of whole meal; drop-, dropped scone, one made of a small portion of batter dropped on the griddle or on a tin and baked; fried scone, one in which the ingredients are made into a batter and fried; sweetie scone Sc. (see quot. 1808).
The Eng. Dial. Dict. has an 18th c. quot. for ‘three nucket scons’ (three-cornered scones). The context of quot. 1513 below shows that a four-cornered cake was meant.
| 1513 Douglas æneis vii. iii. 15 The flour sconnis war sett in, by and by, Wyth wther mesis. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 43 Thai hed na breyd bot ry caikis and fustean skonnis maid of flour. 1744 in Scottish Jrnl. Topogr. (1848) I. 334/2, 3 Pyes and Bread and a Currand Scone. 1787 Burns Scotch Drink iv, On thee [sc. John Barleycorn] aft Scotland chows her cood, In souple scones, the wale o' food! 1808 Jamieson s.v. Yule §4 What the vulgar call a sweetie-skon, or a loaf enriched with raisins, currants, and spiceries. 1818 Scott Br. Lamm. xxvi, Never had there been such..making of car⁓cakes and sweet scones. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped xx, We lay on the bare top of a rock, like scones upon a girdle. 1899 E. F. Heddle Marget at Manse 100 She..would bake drop-scones, and carry in my tea with her own hands. 1899 R. Wallace Country Schoolmaster 20 Potato scones, soda scones, ‘droppet’ scones, treacle scones. 1942 C. Spry Come into Garden, Cook xv. 213 Most people have a good recipe for dropped scones... Drop the batter from a spoon on the hot girdle and turn once. 1956 E. Grierson Second Man ii. 44 Some tea-cake and drop scones and jam. 1977 Age (Melbourne) 18 Jan. 13/4 The cheese souffle looked more like a cheese drop-scone. |
2. (More fully scone cap.) ‘The old broad bonnet of the Lowlands’ (Jam.).
| 1820 Blackw. Mag. Dec. 322 From the shepherd's shealing..to the pillared palace..—from the scone cap, to the jewelled bonnet. 1826 G. R. Gleig Subaltern xvii, The Lowland bonnet, or scone. |
3. a. (Always with pronunc. skɒn) to do one's scone, to lose one's head, temper. Hence scone-doer, scone-doing. N.Z. slang.
| 1942 2nd N.Z.E.F. Times 20 Apr. 6 Scone-doer. A person subject to sudden fits of excitement and irritation. Ibid. 19 Oct. 5 ‘Don't do your plurry scone, Dig!’..‘Who's sconing?’ 1944 F. I. Cooze Kiwis in Pacific i. 8 The camp at Pahantanui was much as all military camps. Tedious training, fatigues, and ‘scone-doing’ from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1952 Here & Now (N.Z.) II. iv. 20 Everyone question Rangi. Everyone do the Scone. 1957 M. K. Joseph I'll Soldier no More (1958) ix. 167 Gillies finds him a bit of a nagger, but likes him for being efficient and not doing his scone. |
b. The head. Austral. slang.
| c 1945 in S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. (1966) viii. 172 Scone, head. 1957 D. Niland Call Me when Cross turns Over v. 138, I can just see you running a house. I'd give you a week before you went off your scone. 1968 D. O'Grady Bottle of Sandwiches 58 He reckoned we weren't right in the scone to be travelling so far on a Sunday just to chase a ball around a paddock. |
4. Comb., as scone-hot a. Austral. slang, in phr. to go (someone) scone-hot, to reprimand (someone) severely, to lose one's temper at (someone); see also quot. 1941.
| 1938 X. Herbert Capricornia 530 Halfcaste Shillingsworth goes Copra Co scone-hot! 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 63 Scone-hot, an intensive to describe great vigour of attack, scolding or speed, e.g., ‘Go for someone scone-hot’, to reprimand severely. (2) Exorbitant, unreasonable. (3) Expert, proficient, e.g., ‘He's scone-hot at shearing’. 1944 Coast to Coast 1943 116, I don't want Reg going me scone hot because his wife's not capable of looking after herself. 1967 K. Tennant Tell Morning This (1968) xvii. 139 When my big brother Jim come home from work, he went Dad scone hot. 1974 D. Ireland Burn 136 When he finds out he'll go me scone-hot. |
▪ II. scone, v. Austral. and N.Z. slang.
(skɒn)
[f. dial. scon, scun: see Eng. Dial. Dict.]
trans. To hit.
| 1948 Coast to Coast 1947 187 The bottle broke. Damn! he hadn't meant to scone the bottle first go-off. 1958 I. Cross God Boy iv. 30 Joe was worried in case he had really sconed the girl. |