tystie local.
(ˈtaɪstɪ, ˈtiːstɪ)
Also 8 taisté, 9 tysté, -ty, -tie, -tey, teisty, teistie, testie, tiestie.
[Of Norse origin: cf. Norw. teist(e, OIcel. þeist, þeisti.]
The Black Guillemot.
| 1774 Low Fauna Orcad. (1813) 106 The taisté build in holes of the earth: lay but one egg. 1837 R. Dunn Ornith. Orkney & Shetl. 102 Uria Grylle{ddd}Tystie. Black Guillemot. Greenland Dove. 1847 Zoologist V. 1909 The black guillemot..or the testie. 1876 D. Gorrie Summers & Wint. Orkneys v. 153 Bevies of teisties were disporting themselves in front and rear. 1892 G. Stewart Shetland Fireside T. iv. (ed. 2) 27 He turned as fat as a tiestie. 1893 H. T. Cozens-Hardy Broad Norfolk 50 Sometimes there is quite a family of similar names..of the same origin. Thus the Black Guillemot is..the tyste, taiste, toyst, and tysty. 1952 U. Venables Tempestuous Eden iii. 50 This was an ideal nesting-ground for black guillemots or tysties. 1964 A. L. Thomson New Dict. Birds 69/1 The Tystie (or Black Guillemot)..and its congeners constitute the tribe Cepphini. 1980 Birds Summer 51/2 There is a small brackish loch near the shore where tysties display in spring. |