laird
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /lɛːd/
ipa: /lɛəɹd/
ipa: /lerd/
ipa: /leːd/
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /leəd/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /liəd/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /lɜː(ɹ)d/
rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)d
homophone: laired
homophone: leered (cheer–chair merger)
Forms: form: lairds
Etymology: The noun is borrowed from Scots laird, from northern or Scottish Middle English lard, laverd, a variant of lord. The verb is derived from the noun. Doublet of hlaford and lord.
Senses: glosses: A feudal lord in Scottish contexts.
examples: text: Now Wiſe, and Rich, and Worthie, and Wonderful, and Faithful and True, and Rare, & Charitable, and Great Laird of Carnwath, Be not Prowd, altho I Commend you at ſuch a Rate behind your back and yet never ſaw You...
ref: 1712 January 1, [William Mitchel], The Tinklars Speech to the Most Loyal Country-man, the Honourable Laird of Carnwath, [Edinburgh?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 2:
text: Once I was call'd a great Fife laird,
I dwelt not far from the Hall-yard:
[...]
O! but it's long and many a year,
Since laſt my feet did travel here.
I find great change in old lairds places,
I know the ground, but not the faces,
Where ſhall I turn me firſt about,
For my acquaintance is worn out?
ref: 1751, “The Speech of a Fife Laird, Newly Come from the Grave”, in The Speech of a Fife Laird Newly Come from the Grave. The Mare of Collingtoun. The Banishment of Poverty. Three Scots Poems, Glasgow: Printed and sold by Robert & Andrew Foulis, →OCLC, page 2:
text: [H]e brought with him money enough to purchase the small estate of Monkbarns, then sold by a dissipated laird to whose father it had been gifted, with other church lands, upon the dissolution of the great and wealthy monastery to which it had belonged.
ref: 1816, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in The Antiquary. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 27:
text: Though now entered on the stage of glorious war, the young Laird of Dalbracken remained still the same imaginative and sensitive being who dreamed and loved in the scenes of his boyhood.
ref: 1848, [James Kirkland], chapter XV, in The Eerie Laird: Being the Only Authentic History of the Person so Called by Tradition in Scotland; […], London: T[homas] C[autley] Newby, […], →OCLC, page 143:
text: Lowland lairds allied themselves with Highland chiefs, along with Edinburgh and Glasgow burghers who worried about having to compete for markets with English merchants.
ref: 2001, Arthur [L.] Herman, “A Trap of Their Own Making”, in How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →ISBN; paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, 2001, →ISBN, part 1 (Epiphany), page 40:
glosses: An aristocrat, particularly in Scottish contexts and in reference to the chiefs of the Scottish clans.
examples: text: In Scotland, the traditional term for the owner of an upland estate is the ‘laird’. [...] Well into the post-war period, the lairds of large estates were generally treated deferentially by local people but times have changed, [...] It would be a mistake to equate the title ‘laird’ to a British ‘lord’, as it does not confer any political standing, but the fact that some of Scotland’s lairds sit in the House of Lords can confuse the outsider.
ref: 2013, Jayne Glass, Alister Scott, Martin F. Price, Charles Warren, “Sustainability in the Uplands: Introducing Key Concepts”, in Jayne Glass, Martin F. Price, Charles Warren, Alister Scott, editors, Lairds, Land and Sustainability: Scottish Perspectives on Upland Management, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Sustainability in the Uplands), box 1.9 (Who is the ‘Laird’?), page 23:
glosses: A landowner, particularly in Scottish contexts.
Derived terms: bonnet laird
lairdess
lairdie
lairdly
lairdocracy
lairdship
tipsy laird