Sc. and north. Forms: 2 wehit, (wheit), 4 wyeygt, whight, 4–5 weght, 8–9 weight, 6– wecht. (See also Eng. Dial. Dict.) [Possibly a special application of prec. 21, orig. denoting a utensil capable of containing a certain weight of grain.] A farm utensil resembling a sieve in form, with a bottom of sheepskin or wood (unperforated), used for winnowing corn, also as a measure.
For timbre wecht: see TIMBRE sb.1 b.
1183. Boldon. Bk. (Surtees), 23. Et j. wheit de scatmalt, et j. wehit de farina, et j. wehit de avena.
1354. Finchale Acc. (Surtees), p. xxxvi. iiij wyeygtes. Ibid. (1360), p. lii. ij weghtes.
1371. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 129. iij riddils; j whight.
1483. Cath. Angl., 412/2. A Weght, capisterium.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), II. 181. My bairn has tocher of her awin … A Wecht, a peet-creel and a cradle.
c. 1780. M. Lonsdale, in S. Gilpin, Songs & Ballads Cumbld. (1866), 279. Theer was whangs an’ shives, thick an’ thin, I’ weights an’ riddles putt’n.
1786. Burns, Halloween, xxi. Meg fain wad to the Barn gaen, To winn three wechts o’ naething.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 283. Wechts or maunds for taking up corn are made either of wood or of skin, attached to a rim of wood…. Wechts should be made of [two] different sizes.
1898. J. Colville, Scott. Vernacular, 12. When snow covered the ground, the barn wecht or close sieve was the favourite [bird] trap.
Hence Wechtful, the amount contained in a ‘weight.’ Also Wecht v. trans., to winnow (corn) with a ‘weight.’
1804. Tarras, Poems, 67. She wechts the corn anent the blaw.
1808. Jamieson, Wechtful, as much as a wecht can contain.
1832. Carlyle, Remin. (1881), I. 29. Potatoes were little in use then; a ‘wechtful’ was stored up to be eaten perhaps about Halloween.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 273. Another woman, with a smaller wecht, takes up the good grain … and divides the wechtful between the other two women. Ibid., 283.
