▪ I. ˈpellock1, -ack, -och Sc.
(ˈpɛlək, -ɒx)
Forms: 4 pelok, 6 pellok, (6 -at), 7 pealok, 7–9 pellack, 8 -uck, pallach, (9 palach), 9 pelloch, -ock.
[In 14th c. pelok, latinized peloca. Origin obscure: the Gael. peileag appears to be from Lowland Sc.]
The porpoise (Phocæna communis). But in quots. 1331, 1541, app. some other species.
| 1331 in Exch. Rolls Scotl. I. 397 Et eidem, per vnam petram de porpoys et tres pelokis, xvs. [Ibid. 363 Per vnam pelocam, missam camerario, vs.] 1511 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IV. 337 Item, to Robert Buttone katour for ane selcht and ane pellok and salt to thaim. 1541 Bellenden Descr. Alb. ix. in Cron. Scot. B vj b, This firth [of Forth] is rycht plentuus of coclis, osteris, muschellis, selch, pellok, merswyne & quhalis. 1645 Shetland Witch Trial in Hibbert Descr. Shetl. Isl. (1822) 599 Being transformed in the lyknes of an pellack quhaill. 1710 Sibbald Hist. Fife 53 A Palach, a great Destroyer of Salmond. 1792 Statist. Acc. Scotl. IV. 22 A species of sea animals..called buckers, pellocks, or porpoises. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth iii, Gambolling like a pellack amongst the waves. 1894 Crockett Raiders 219 Like a school of pellocks in the Firth. |
| fig. 1755 Forbes Jrnl. to Portsmouth in Ajax etc. 28 The second chiel was a thick, setterel, swown pallach. |
▪ II. † ˈpellock2 Sc. Obs.
[app. f. pellet n.1, with exchange of dimin. suffix: see -ock.]
A ball thrown as a missile from a cross-bow, hackbut, cannon, etc.; a bullet; = pellet n.1 2.
| c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 463 Thai bend bowis of bras braithly within; Pellokis paisand to pase, Gapand gunnys of brase. 1496 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 320 Giffin to a man to tak mesour of muldis of diuers gunnys, to send in Frans to mak pellokis of irne, xvjd. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. xii. 111 Wyth leyd pellokis from engynis or staf slyng..thair fa men doun to ding. 1540 Sc. Acts Jas. V (1814) II. 371/2 Euery landit man within þe samin Sall haue ane hagbute of founde..with þare calmis bullettis and pellokis of leid..or Irne. |
b. Comb. † pellock-bow Obs., an arbalest.
| 1538 in Pitcairn Crim. Trials I. *293 Ane irne of ane Pellok-bow. |