yird
(also 4 ȝerd(e, 4, 8–9 yerd, 5 yherde, 6 ȝird).
Sc. and north. f. earth n., and v. (to bury).
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints i. (Petrus) 681 Ihesu,..þat in þis ȝerd com fra hewine. 1433 Deeds rel. Orkney vi, Aisiamentis..as weill under yherde as boufe yherde. 1550 Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1880) II. 74 All..pertenens quhatsumeuir..als weill vnder the ȝird as abouf. 1562 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. XI. 214 To David Ellis for ȝerding of Johnne Gordoune..xx s. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (Bannatyne Club) II. 221 They fand yirdit in the yaird of Drum ane trunk full of silver plait. 1785 Burns Jolly Beggars Recit. i, When lyart leaves bestrew the yird. 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. s.v. Yird-fasts, The cauld yird, the grave. 1825 Jamieson s.v., ‘Fairly yirdit’, dead and buried. 1851 Cumbld. Gloss., Yerd, a fox-earth. 1882 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. No. 3. 511 The ‘Yirding of a live Cock’ to cure epilepsy. 1894 Crockett Raiders xxiv, To afford yirds and secret caves for our Solway smugglers. |
b. Comb.: esp. in yirdfast = earthfast (cf. ON. jarðfastr). See also yerd-hunger.
| 1545 Aberd. Reg. XIX. (Jam.) Tuelf pennis Scottis of yerd-siluer. 1785 Poems in Buchan Dial. 6 Whare now thy groans in dowy dens The yerd-fast stanes do thirle. 1808 Jamieson, Yirdin, thunder [see earth-din]. 1820 Blackw. Mag. VI. 568 A penetrating and even suffocating yird-drift. 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl., Yird-fasts, large stones sticking in the yird, or earth, that the plough cannot move. 1825 Jamieson, Yird-drift, snow, not in the act of falling, but lifted up from the ground, and driven by the wind, after it has lain for some time. |