▪ I. shoat1 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 7 shote, shoate, shoot, 7, 9 shott, 9 shot.
[Prob. repr. OE. sceota trout (? f. root of scéotan to shoot, with reference to its swift movement).]
A fish resembling the trout, but smaller, found in Devon and Cornwall. (See also quots. 1865 and 1894.)
| a 1000 Colloq. ælfric in Wr.-Wülcker 94 Tructos, sceotan. 1602 Carew Cornwall i. 26 The Shote [is] in a maner peculiar to Deuon and Cornwall, in shape and colour he resembleth the Trowt: howbeit in bignesse and goodnesse, commeth farre behind him. 1613–16 W. Browne Brit. Past. i. ii. 23 The Shoates with whom is Tauie fraught. c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §301 (1810) 312 This brook..aboundeth with shoots and sheliscads, a fish not unlike the trout, and said to be peculiar to Devonshire and Cornwall. a 1636 T. Westcote View Devonsh. (1845) 39 Scad. Salmon. Shott. Seal. 1865 Couch Brit. Fishes IV. 225 Common Trout. [Syn.] Shot. 1880–84 F. Day Brit. Fishes II. 104 Salmo fario. Shot (Westmoreland). 1894 Trans. Woolhope Nat. Field Club 204 Mr. Matthews caught a good many ‘shotts’ [app. a local term for grayling] in the Monnow above Monmouth Cap. |
▪ II. shoat2 dial. and U.S.
(ʃəʊt)
Forms: 5 schoyth, 6 schot, shoit(e, shoitte, shoyte, shoyite, 7 shott, shoate, 5–9 shote, 6–9 shot, 7– shoat; 6–7 shoote, 7–9 shoot; 7 shutt, 8 shute, 8–9 shut.
[Cf. WFlem. schote, schoteling, a pig under one year old.]
1. A young weaned pig.
| 1413 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 54 In 1 porcell. de xma, 4d. In 1 Schoyth empt., 22d. 1465 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 296 For vij. yonge shotes. v.s. 1509 in Stocks Market Harb. Rec. (1890) 230 A Boere Fedde v shots and A Sowe. 1567 Richmond Wills (Surtees) 203 Of old swyne xij. Two shoits, v piggs, liiijs viij{supd}. 1611 Cotgr., Marson, a shoat; a hog thats a yeare, or vnder a yeare, old. 1618 Webster & Rowley Cure for Cuckold ii. iii, You have a brave Boy of your own wifes; Oh tis a shot to this pig. c 1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) I. 155 Hoggs, porkets, shootes and piggs. 1668 R. B. Adagia Scot. 54 The shots overgoes the old swine. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 331 Sheat, or Shutt, a young Hog. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 411 We killed a small Shote, or young Porker. 1707 [E. Ward] Barbacue Feast 5 A Hoggard coming by with a Drove of young Shoats. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 403 Spayed and gelt shutes. 1787 W. H. Marshall Norfolk (1795) II. 388 Shots, young store swine. 1811 T. Davis Agric. Wilts 260 Shoots, young pigs of three or four months old. 1904 G. H. Lorimer Old Gorgon Graham vi. 120 Like a six-months shoat at the trough. |
2. transf. An idle worthless person.
| 1800 Weems Life of Washington vi. (1877) 40 The poorest shoat. 1840 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. iii. xi. 153, I am the poorest shot in the world. Poorest shote, said he, you mean, for you have no soul in you. 1862 Lowell Biglow P. Ser. ii. iii, Long'z you elect for Congressmen poor shotes thet want to go Coz they can't seem to git their grub no otherways than so. |
▪ III. shoat, n.3 orig. Austral.
(ʃəʊt)
[f. sheep n. + goat n.]
The offspring of a sheep and a goat.
| 1969 D. F. Elder Let. to Editor 17 Sept., Although it has not appeared in print, the radio and television news programmes have also been using the word ‘shoats’. 1971 New Scientist 8 July 66/1 Hundreds of people have claimed success in breeding shoats or geep. 1985 Daily Tel. 12 Aug. 7/1 The shoat began as a normally conceived lamb by one set of sheep and a normally conceived kid by two goats. 1987 Sydney Morning Herald 28 Nov. 2/8 Chimeras of goats and sheep have been made—the ‘shoat’—and in one case the embryos of four breeds of mice were successfully combined and grown. |