sb. pl. Sc. (and Ir.). Forms: 6 sowannis, 7 sownis, 7–9 sowins, 8– sowens, -ings, sewings, sooins, so’ns, 9 sowans, sooans, -ens, sones; sweens, swins, etc. [app. ad. Gael. súghan, súbhan, the liquid used in preparing ‘sowens’ (= Ir. súghán, subhán sap, juice), f. súgh, súbh sap.]
1. An article of diet formerly in common use in Scotland (and some parts of Ireland), consisting of farinaceous matter extracted from the bran or husks of oats by steeping in water, allowed to ferment slightly, and prepared by boiling.
A number of phrases and idiomatic uses are illustrated in the Eng. Dial. Dict.
α. 1582. Records of Elgin (New Spald. Cl.), I. 168. Scho wald leiff to sie his bairnis beg thair meit; he culd cun sowannis better nor aill.
1625. Sc. Acts, Chas. I. (1870), V. 182/2. Actis maid anent the pryceis of sownis and english beir.
1677. Nicolson, in Trans. R. Soc. Lit. (1870), IX. 319. Sowins, outshellings.
1698. M. Martin, Voy. St. Kilda, iii. 114. These Sowens, (i. e. Flummery) being blended together, produce good Yest.
1728. Swift, Past. Dial., Wks. 1755, III. II. 204. See, where Norah with the sowins comes.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 15 Sept. At night they sup on sowens or flummery of oatmeal.
1785. Burns, Halloween, xxviii. Till butter’d So’ns, wi’ fragrant lunt, Set a’ their gabs a steerin.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xix. I was bred a plain man at my father’s frugal table, and I should like well would my … family permit me to return to my sowens.
1855. [J. D. Burn], Autobiogr. Beggar Boy (1859), 49. I had … an excellent supper of sowans with milk, and bread and cheese.
1885. W. Ross, Aberdour & Inchcolme, II. 26. He found the goodwife busy preparing sowans.
fig. 1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xlii. The Christian souls … who were hungering for spiritual manna, having been fed but upon sour Hieland sowens by … the last minister.
β. 1776. J. Pringle, Disc. Health Mariners, 18, note. This rural food, in the North, is called sooins.
1778. Phil. Trans., LXVIII. 632. What is called sooins in Scotland, and much used by the common people there.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 334. Extendin your notes, as they ca’t, ower your sooens and sma’ beer.
1899. J. Spence, Shetland Folk-Lore, 174. Groats, and ootsiftins, from the last of which that delicious food called sooans … are made.
2. attrib., as sowen-cog, -kit, -mug, -porridge, etc. Also sowens-say, a sieve for sowens.
1722. Ramsay, Three Bonnets, II. 1. The supper sowin-cogs and bannocks. Ibid. (1724), Tea-table Misc. (1876), I. 174. A milsie, and a sowen-pale.
1725. in Herd, Sc. Songs (1776), II. 143. A spurtle and a sowen mug.
1729. in Paterson, Hist. Musselburgh (1857), 164. Although the sowin pot should cool.
1776. Herd’s Sc. Songs, II. 139. ’Tis fa’en in the sowen kit.
1793. Fullarton, View Agric. Ayr., 114. The spence in which were stored the meal-chest, sowen-tubs, besoms, and saddles.
1808. Jamieson, Sowens-porridge, a dish of pottage, made of … cold sowens, by mixing meal with the sowens, while on the fire.
1822. Galt, Sir A. Wylie, III. xxiv. 200. Something about a sowan-cog.
1825. Jamieson, Suppl., s.v. Say, The sowens-say is supported by two bars laid across the tub.
1900. Daily Record, 2 May, 5/2. Sowan porridge, our new delicacy, made from fermented oats.
