cain, kain Sc. & Ir.
(keɪn)
Also 3–4 can, 3– cane, 6– kane, 8– kain.
[a. Celtic cáin, in OIr. ‘statute law’, mod.Ir. ‘rent, tribute, fine’ (O'Reilly), Gaelic ‘fine, tribute, payment in kind’. According to Skene (Celtic Scotl. III. 231) the primary meaning was ‘law’, whence it was applied to ‘any fixed payment exigible by law’.]
1. A portion of the produce of the soil payable to the landlord as rent; a rent paid in kind. In later times used only of the smaller articles, as poultry.
| c 1190 Chartulary of St. Andrews 45 (Skene) Ab can et cuneveth et exercitu et auxilio. 1251 [Skene cites] Cain, Coneveth, Feacht, Sluaged, & Ich. a 1758 Ramsay Poems (1800) II. 525 (Jam.) The laird got a' to pay his kain. 1786 Burns Twa Dogs, Our Laird gets in his racked rents, His coals, his kain, and a' his stents. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. viii. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 259 Under a tree on that inner island..the queen sits and gathers kain for the Evil One. 1876 Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. i. i. 7 The Cane of the lands..amounting to 40 Stones of cheese, 70 Measures of Barley, and a Sheep. |
b. attrib.
| 1597 Skene Exp. Terms s.v. Canum, This word, cane, signifies..tribute or dewtie, as cane fowles, cane cheis, cane aites, quhilk is paid be the tennant..as ane duty of the land. 1810 Cromek Nithsdale Song 280 (Jam.) It is hinted..that Kain Bairns were paid to Satan, and fealty done for reigning through his division of Nithsdale and Galloway. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth III. ii. 45 Cooped up in a convent, like a kain-hen in a cavey. 1872 C. Innes Sc. Legal Antiq., The cain fowls of a barony are quite well understood. Cain fowls are sometimes called reek hens—one payable from every house that reeked—every fire house. |
c. to pay the cain: (fig.) to ‘pay’ the penalty.
| a 1774 Fergusson Leith Races, Though they should dearly pay the kain, And get their tails weel sautit. 1787 Burns Tam Samson's El. ii, To Death she's dearly paid the kane, Tam Samson's dead! 1794 in Ritson Sc. Songs II. 78 (Jam.) For Campbell rade, but Myrie staid, And sair he paid the kain, man. |
2. (Ireland) A fine or penalty for an offence.
| 1518 Rental Bk. Earl Kildare in Trans. Kilkenny Archæol. Soc. Ser. ii. IV. 123 Item half kanys & penalties w{supt}in the said Gleancappel. |