Pict, n.
(pɪkt)
Forms: α. 1 pl. Peohtas, Pehtas, Pih-, Pyhtas, 4 Peghttes, 5 sing. Peght(e, pl. (Sc.) Peychtis, Pightis, 6 sing. Peight, 6– Pecht, (8 Peht, 9 Peght, Piht). β. 4–6 pl. Pictes, -is, 5 Pyctes, 7– sing. Pict.
[In late L. Pictī, identical in form with pictī painted or tattooed people, which may be the meaning; but the L. may be merely an assimilated form of a native name: cf. Pictavi, Pictones in Gaul. The OE. Peohtas represents an earlier Pihtas, which would answer to a foreign Pict- (cf. Wiht for L. Vectis); its direct descendant is the Scottish Pecht; Pict is from L.]
1. One of an ancient people of disputed origin and ethnological affinities, who formerly inhabited parts of north Britain. According to the chroniclers the Pictish kingdom was united with the Scottish under Kenneth MacAlpine in 843, and the name of the Picts as a distinct people gradually disappeared.
In Scottish folk-lore, the Pechts are often represented as a dark pygmy race, or an underground people; and sometimes identified with elves, brownies, or fairies.
Picts' houses, the name given to underground structures attributed to the Picts, found on the east coast of Scotland and in Orkney. Picts' wall: see quot. 1753 in β.
| α a 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. i. i. (1890) 28 Ða ferdon Peohtas in Breotone, & ongunnon eardiᵹan þa norðdælas þyses ealondes... Mid þy Peohtas wif næfdon. Ibid., Þridde cynn Scotta Breotone onfeng on Pehta dæle. a 900 O.E. Chron. an. 449 (Parker MS.) Se cing het hi feohtan aᵹien Pihtas, & hi swa dydan. c 1122 Ibid. (Laud MS.), Heo þa fuhton wið Pyhtas. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 4126 Peghttes and paynymes..disspoylles our knyghttes. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. iv. xix. 1757 A company Out of þe kynrik of Sithi Coyme of Peychtis [Wemyss MS. Pightis] in Irlande. 1483 Cath. Angl. 272/2 A Peghte (A. A Peght or Pigmei), pigmeus. 1566 T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewel iii. 129 The forrain inuasions of the Scottes and Peightes or Red⁓shankes. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. iii. 198 The Pechtes..called a counsel. 1789 Pinkerton Enquiry I. iii. x. 367 The common denomination among the people of Scotland, from the Pehts Wall in Northumberland to the Pehts houses in Ross-shire, and up to the Orkneys, is Pehts. 1822 Scott Pirate ii. note, The ancient Picts, or, as [the inhabitants of the Orkneys] call them with the usual strong guttural, Peghts. 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 415/2 He [Arthur] received intelligence of the revolt of Modred, who had allied himself with the Saxons, Scots, and Pihts. 1881 Blackw. Mag. Sept. 398 A stranger..whom the most knowing man..pronounced to be a ‘Pecht’, for he was small and black and had all the characteristics of the traditional ‘Pecht’. |
| β 1387 Trevisa Higden II. 147 Þei beeþ i-cleped Pictes by cause of peyntynge. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 48 Pictis, and Scottys, and Hyrysshe also. 1753 J. Warburton (title) Vallum Romanum; or, the History and Antiquities of the Roman Wall, Commonly called the Picts Wall, in Cumberland and Northumberland, Built by Hadrian and Severus..Seventy Miles in Length, to keep out the ..Picts and Scots. 1813 J. Grant Orig. Gael (1814) 292 The Picts of Albinn.. inhabited the whole range of low country from the Frith of Forth, northward. 1822 Scott Pirate xxvii, One of those dens which are called Burghs and Picts-houses in Zetland. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. iv. 116 These structures, for which—we retain the popular name of Picts houses..are erected on the natural surface of the soil and have been buried by an artificial mound heaped over them. |
| attrib. a 1856 in G. Henderson Pop. Rhymes 8 Grisly Drædan sat alane By the cairn and Pech stane. 1897 H. Tennyson Mem. Tennyson II. xiv. 280 We had a drive of ten miles to Maeshowe, a Pict burial-mound. |
† 2. humorous. One who paints the face.
Obs.| 1711 Steele Spect. No. 41 ¶4, I have..distinguished those of our Women who wear their own, from those in borrowed Complexions, by the Picts and the British. 1892 Daily News 8 Dec. 5/1 Men must be tolerant of ‘Picts’, as the old ‘Spectator’ calls them, or Picts would not be so prevalent. |