▪ I. † soum, n.1 Sc. Obs.
In 5 sowme, 5–6 sowm, 6 soume.
[a. OF. soume, var. of some, somme: see seam n.2 and cf. some n.3]
A horse-load; a pack. Also attrib. in soum saddle.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace iv. 24 Wallace..Our tuk the child Schyr Ranaldis sowme couth leid. 1497 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 345 For ane hors to bere the Kingis sowme. 1505 Ibid. III. 160 For floting of the pannell of the sowm sadill. 1512 Ibid. IV. 308 Stoppein, taggein, and mending of ane soume sadill. c 1575 Balfour's Practicks (1754) 87 Ane horse sowme of the said fish, or dry hering. |
▪ II. soum, n.2 Sc. Now chiefly Hist.
(sum)
Forms: 6, 8–9 soume, 6–8 sowm(e; 7 summe, 8 soom, 8– soum.
[app. the same as soum sum n. Hence Gael. suim in sense 2.]
1. The amount of pasturage which will support one cow or a proportional number of sheep or other stock.
| 1500 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 542/1 Concessit..pratum vulgariter nuncupatum le Grymys Medow, cum communi pastura unius equi et 4 de le sowmoys [sic] in dicta villa. 1524 Ibid. 222/2 Vendiderunt 2 acras terrarum cum tofta et crofta,..cum 6 le sowmys in pastura. 1606 Sc. Acts, Jas. VI (1816) IV. 285/2 Extending in the haill to sextene sowmes for the said four akeris. c 1730 Burt Lett. N. Scotl. (1818) II. 57 If the tenant is to hire his grazing in the hills he takes it by soumes. 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law (1809) 57 A glebe, which comprehends four acres of arable land, or sixteen sowms of pasture ground. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 72 Moors and sheep-walks are more frequently rented by the soum, than by the acre. |
2. The number of sheep or cattle that can be maintained on a certain amount of pasture. a soum of sheep, a number varying in different places from four to ten.
| 1508 in Pitcairn Crim. Trials I. 58* Of shutting up her ‘gudis’—viz. sixty-five ‘soumes’ furth of her said third part. 1594 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 34 note, Pasturage of 20 sowmes yeild-guidis, profits of each sowm 20s. 1610 Ibid. 202/2 Togidder with the pasture of sax sowmes of nolt..upoun the ground of my landis of Grenelaw. 1700 Minutes Baron Crt. Stitchill (S.H.S.) 146 Wher any possessed but one Soum in the Mayns that Soum shall absolutely be a Kow or Oxe and not a sheip. a 1724 in Ramsay's Tea-t. Misc. (1729) 17 A Kilnfu' of Corn I'll gi'e to thee, Three Soums of Sheep, twa good Milk Ky. 1794 Statist. Acc. Scotl. XII. 396 A privilege of pasturage for 72 soums of sheep upon the common, 5 sheep being reckoned to a soum. 1884 Rep. Crofters' Commission App. A. 468 In Lews and Harris..a man is entitled to send so many soums to the grazings of his townland. |
b. In the phr. soum's (or soums') grass.
| 1574 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. V. 12/1 Cum pastura 6 animalium lie sex sowmes gers. 1582 Cal. Laing Charters (1899) 259 The saidis millaris multraris hes ane certaine land of ws for his soumis girse. 1610 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 114/1 Cum pasturagio unius summe lie sowmes-gras. 1621 Sc. Acts, Jas. VI (1816) IV. 612/2 Act declairing summes Grasse..to be teyndfrie. 1793 Statist. Acc. Scotl. VIII. 104 The glebe..is supposed to be legal as to extent, with 4 soums grass, in common with the cattle of the farm. |
▪ III. soum, v. Sc. Law.
(sum)
Also 7–8 sowm.
[f. prec.]
trans. To estimate the amount of (pasture) in terms of the ‘soums’ it can support.
| 1679 Stair Decisions 23 Jan. (Dunlop) II. 679 Where divers heritors have a common pasturage in one commontie, no part whereof is ever plowed, the said common pasturage may be Soumed and Roumed. 1793 Statist. Acc. Scot. VI. 93 Where there are several small tenants upon one farm, the farm is (what they call) soumed. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 932 Strictly speaking, to sowm the common, is to ascertain the several sowms it may hold; and to rowm it, is to portion it out amongst the dominant proprietors. |
Hence ˈsouming vbl. n.
Chiefly in the phr. souming and rouming: see room v.2 1 b. Also concr., the amount of stock which one person may send to a common pasture.
| 1681 Stair Instit. ii. vii. §14 (1693) 289 It is accustomed in some places, to regulat common Pasturage by Souming and Rouming, which is the determining of the several Soums it may hold by particular Proportion of every Room of the Dominant Tenement. 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law (1809) 221 Which proportions may be fixed by an action of souming and rouming. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 524 The souming of cattle is not so much attended to as it ought to be. a 1856 Outram Lyrics (1874) 43 She sune made her fu' purse a toom ane, By raising a Process o' Soumin' an' Roumin'. 1884 Spectator 17 May 642 The constable and another man..see that only the proper souming has been brought to the grazing. 1889 Scott. Leader 17 May 5 His clients had sufficient stock, according to their present souming, to stock the land applied for. |
▪ IV. soum(e
obs. ff. sum n. and v.; Sc. var. swim.