Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 3–6 lede, 4 leyd, 6–7 leid, (6 lead), 8–9 leed, 8 leet, 9 lied. [app. a shortened form of LEDEN.] † Language, ‘tongue’ = LEDEN 2. Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. iv. 1. Strophades in Grew leid ar nemmit so.
1567. Satir. Poems Reform., iii. 140. Than sall I wryte in prettie poetrie, In Latine leid.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S. T. S.), I. 158. Alexander … was send to France to leairne the leid witht wther lettres.
Proverb. 1808. Jamieson, Ilk land has its ain leid.
b. The speech of a person or class of persons, talk, utterance; manner of speaking or writing; phraseology, ‘patter.’ Obs. exc. Sc.
a. 1300. Body & Soul, 21, in Map’s Poems (Camden), 334. Ȝwere is al thi michele pride, And thi lede that was so loud?
13[?]. Sir Tristr., 1004. Tristrem … schortliche seyd in lede: We no owe þe noþing.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, ix. (Bertholomeus), 68. Al langage spek he cane, & vndirstand al leyd of mane.
c. 1400–50. Alexander, 5007. In quatkyn manir of lede sall me þir treis sware?
1560. Rolland, Crt. Venus, Prol. 284. The ofter that ȝe it reid, Ȝe sall the better tak baith the sence, and leid.
1599. James I., Βασιλικον Δωρον (1603), 115. Not using any rusticall corrupt leid, as booke language.
1746. E. Erskine, Serm., Wks. 1871, III. 305. Let faith get up its head and it will speak its own particular leed.
1790. D. Morison, Poems, 77. Let Matrons round the ingle meet … An’ in a droll auld farran’ leet, ’Bout fairys crack.
1826. G. Beattie, John o’ Arnha, 22. To hersel’ this leed she mutter’d, ‘Frae the east—fra the wast’ [etc.].
a. 1828. ‘Hynd Horn,’ xviii. in Child, Ballads (1882), I. 207/1. Auld man, come tell to me your leed; What news ye gie when ye beg your bread.
1850. W. Jamie, Stray Effusions, 146. Nae jockeyship kent he Nor ploughman leed.
1867. Gregor, Banffs. Gloss., Leed … One line of conversation or argument; as, ‘He got intil a leed, an oot o’ that he cudna get.’
c. poet. applied to the ‘language’ of birds.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., 27. The lutel foul hath hire wyl on hyre lud to sing.
184[?]. Laing, in Whistle-binkie (Scot. Songs) (1890), I. 374. That wonderfu calf Has Scripture by heart, as the gowk has its lied.
