▪ I. caird Sc.
(kɛəd)
Also 8 kaird.
[Lowland Sc. a. Gaelic ceard ‘artificer in metal, tinker, blackguard’ = Irish ceard m. artist, artificer, metal-worker, tinker:—OIr. cerd (cert) smith, artificer, artist, composer, poet. The same word as Ir. ceard f. art, trade, business, function:—OIr. cerd art, craft, handicraft, Manx keird craft, trade, Welsh cerdd art, craft, now esp. musical art, minstrelsy.
(The Sc. thus shows a degraded use of an important Celtic word; cogn. with L. cerdo handicraftsman, cobbler; also Gr. κέρδεα ‘cunning arts’, κερδώ wily one, cunning fox.]
A travelling tinker; a gipsy, tramp, vagrant.
| 1663 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1792) I. 243 Forbes..nick⁓named Kaird, because when he was a boy he served a kaird. 1787 Burns To J. Smith Yill an' whisky gie to cairds. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xlix, This fellow had been originally a tinkler or caird, many of whom stroll about these districts. |
Hence ˈcairdman n.
| ? a 1800 Knt. & Sheph. Dau. ix. in Child Ballads iv. 474/2 A cairdman's daughter Should never be a true-love o mine. |
▪ II. caird
northern form of card.