▪ I. lyard, lyart, a. and n. Obs. exc. dial.
Also 4–5 lyarde, 4–5, 8 liard, 5–6 lyerd.
[a. OF. liart, of obscure origin; perh. f. lie, lee n.2]
A. adj. A designation of colour. a. Of a horse: Spotted with white or silver grey. b. Of hair: Grey, silvery grey approaching white. c. Applied by Burns to the colour of withered leaves.
In north Eng. dialects ‘a white lyared horse means a grey one, or one dappled with white and black; and a red lyared one is dappled with bay or red and white’ (E.D.D.).
| [1300 Liber Quotid. Garderobæ (1787) 78 Pro uno equo nigro liardo empto de eodem [etc.] 10 0 0. Ibid., Pro uno equo griseo liardo empto de eodem ad opus Regis [etc.] 7 6 8. c 1386 Chaucer Friar's T. 265 This carter þakked his hors..‘Hayt now’ quod he,..‘Þat was wel twight, myn owne lyard boy’. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2542 Laggene with longe speres one lyarde stedes. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 826 Colouris now to knowe attendith ye:..The liard & the white, and broun is sure. 1438 Bk. Alexander Gt. (Bannatyne) 115 Yon ald man..With lyart berd and hare gresone. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxi. 70 Tak in this gray horss, Auld Dunbar, Quhilk in my aucht with schervice trew In lyart changeit is in hew. 1590 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1860) 247 To Oswin Fenwick a graie nagge. To William Fenwick the lyerd nagge. 1607 Markham Caval. i. (1617) 22 The best colour for a stallyon, is browne bay dapled, dapple gray, bright bay, or white lyard. 1721 Ramsay Prospect Plenty xvii, Nereus rising frae his wat'ry bed, The pearly drops hap down his lyart head. c 1750 Miss Elliot Song, The Flowers of the Forest iii, The bandsters are lyart and runkled and grey. 1785 Burns Holy Fair 15 Twa had manteeles o' dolefu' black, But ane wi' lyart lining. 1785 ― Jolly Beggars 1 When lyart leaves bestrow the yird. 1804 J. Grahame Sabbath (1808) 14 The lyart veteran. 1895 Crockett Men of Moss Hags 156 His hair, lyart and long, fell upon his shoulders. |
B. n. As the proper name of a ‘lyard’ horse.
| 13.. Pol. Songs (Camden) 71 Thou shalt ride sporeles o thy lyard Al the ryhte way to Dovere ward. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 64 He lyȝte adown of lyard and ladde hym in his hande. c 1470 Gregory Hist. Coll. Lond. Cit. (Camden) 238 As for beddyng, Lyard my hors had more ese thenn had sum good yeman. 1486–1504 in Denton Eng. 15th Cent. (1888) 319, I sall gyff yow to yowr plesure lyerd my horse. |
▪ II. lyard, lyas
obs. forms of liard n.1, lias.