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Encyclopaedia of the North East

D - Dag to doric

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A large ornate printed capital letter D with pistols, short swords, books and a fossil.

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dag
1 n a type of hand firearm, a pistol; 
2 v to shoot. 

In Scotland, a country whose independence for centuries was only maintained by force of arms, and whose internal history down to the middle of the 18th century was a record of civil wars and family feuds, the possession of arms was a necessity and not a luxury.
C.E. Whitelaw 1923. Scottish Firearms.

Pistols. Three steel flintlock pistols, left to right: large pistol about a foot and a half long with heart shaped butt decorated with roses and leaves, pistol about a foot long with scroll shaped butt decorated with lines and scrolls, small pistol about 9 inches long with heart shaped butt.

Steel flintlock pistols.

left: heart butted pistol, probably made by Shires in Oldmeldrum about 1750. ABDUA:18043

middle: engraved scroll butted pistol 1760-1790. ABDUA:18040

right: heart butted pistol made probably at Brechin or Dundee about 1750 with a cut down barrel. ABDUA:18039

Pistols. A pair of elaborately decorated, gold coloured pistols with steel fittings. The pistols have lemon shaped butts and are decorate all over with engraved roses, interlace, scrolls and straight lines.

Pair of lemon butted brass and steel pistols, snaphaunce locks. Made by A.G. in 1634.

ABDUA:18041

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Fossil. A large piece of rock, about a foot and a half long, with polished, olive coloured, square scales on its surface. The scales are roughly two inches wide.

Fossilised scales of Stagonolepis robertsoni. a mammal-like reptile from near Elgin.

LEMUR:1000003

dinosaur n
literally 'terrible lizard'; an extinct member of the order Dinosauria; popularly a large prehistoric reptile

In the sandstone quarries around Elgin a hundred years ago people found traces of scaly skins and bones. These turned out to be fossils of reptiles from the Permian and Triassic periods (280 to 210 million years ago) that lived amongst the river and dune systems which bordered the Grampian Highlands. Some of these were 'mammal-like reptiles' which were related to the earliest mammals, while others were the ancestors of the dinosaurs. A 60cm long early dinosaur that hopped (Saltopus elginensis) was also found.

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Dirks. Three steel blades about a foot long with sheaths, left to right: blade with wooden handle finely decorated with carved knotwork and brass studs with a leather and brass sheath containing a small knife, double edged blade with horn handle and cross-guard with tiny brass human heads on the ends with a leather sheath decorated with dots and hearts, thick blade with wooden handle and leather sheath decorated with lines, knotwork and a bearded face.

Dirks with sheaths.

left: Regimental dirk of Queen Charlottes Own Highlanders stamped 'Hunter, Army Contractor Parliament Square, Edinburgh' (c1814-20). ABDUA:18048

middle: Bayonette blade converted into dirk (mid 17th cent.) ABDUA:18053

right: Dirk with a heavy triangular blade (late 17th cent.) ABDUA:18050

Dirks. Five steel blades about a foot long with handles, left to right: blade with two deep grooves and wooden handle with hatching and heart decoration, blade with subtle grooves and wooden handle, blade with one deep groove and a chunky wooden handle carved with knotwork, blade with one shallow groove and a finely carved wooden handle with knotwork and brass fittings, blade with one wide groove and an ivory and wood handle.

Dirks made from cut down sword blades (17th to 18th cent.)

Left to right: ABDUA:18051, 18052, 14959, 18049, 18045

durk la16c-, dirk 19c- 
1 n a dagger. 
2 n a stab, a prod. la19c- 
3 vt to stab with a durk la16c-e20c. 

What slaughter made I wi ma durk, 
Amo Sarpedons troop!
David Fergusson 1785 A Selection of Scottish Poems Chiefly in the Broad Buchan Dialect.

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Doric literature. A copy of Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, a copy of Fite Doo Black Crow by Sheena Blackhall, and a programme for 'The Return of Happy Returns' by Scotland the What? at His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen.

Doric literature.

left: Sunset Song, a novel based in the Howe of the Mearns in the early 20th century (1932). LEMUR:1000022

middle: Poems by Sheena Blackhall, a poet who writes in the Doric (1989). LEMUR:1000017

right: Scotland the What? theatre programme, North-East stage humour (1990). LEMUR:1000016

Doric n 
A Greek dialect, or any dialect thought to resemble it. The language of North-East Scotland
The broad, hard dialect spoken by the natives of Doris, Greece. Hence any broad rustic dialect, and especially that of Scotland's Brewers Dictionary of Phrase & Fable 1970. 

D - Dag to doric