Now dial. Also 7 treate, 9 trait, -e; (in sense 2) 3–4 trait, 3–5 tret, treyt, 5–7 trayt, 7 treate, trete. [Origin uncertain; perh. F. trait, traite pa. pple. drawn, withdrawn, extracted: but no sense ‘bran’ appears in F.]
1. The second of the three qualities of bran removed by bolting from wheaten meal.
(Halliwell has ‘Trait, the coarser meal, Cornw.’; but this is not given in any of the Cornwall Glossaries.)
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 105. In every bushell of meale that commeth from the mill there is very neare a pecke of chizell drossed out; which, hereaboutes, is called treate, in the South-country, branne.
1829. Brockett, N. C. Words, Bye-bootings, or Sharps, the finest kind of bran; the second in quality being called Treet, and the worst Chizzel.
1894. Northumbid. Gloss., Treet, the second quality of bran. The finest quality is called ‘sharps’ and the coarsest ‘chizzel.’
a. 1905. Sarah Hewett, MS. Collect. (Devon), in Eng. Dial Dict., s.v. Trait(e, Near Barnstaple I heard a farmer’s wife say—‘Yu ant atuked the traite out fine enough; there’s a gude dayle o’ the cuse bran long wi’ this yer’ [You haven’t taken the treat out fine enough; there’s a good deal of the coarse bran along with this here].
† 2. Here app. belongs the denomination
Bread of trete (AF. pain de trayte, med.(Anglo-)L. panis de trete, treit), also simply trayt, the second lowest and cheapest quality of bread specified in the Statute of Bread and Ale, 51 Hen. III., 1266; the name remained in use down to the 15th c.
Also discussed by the legal antiquaries of the 17th c. and later (in many cases with erroneous guesses: e.g., in Blount, Law Dict., 1670; Phillips (ed. Kersey), 1706; Jamieson, Sc. Dict., s.v. Trayt, etc.).
The Statute of 1266 specified three (or four) varieties of bread of fine flour, of which the standard form was the wastel (OF. gastel, F. gâteau), and three qualities of inferior bread, viz. bread of whole wheat, bread of trete, and bread of any kind of grain; the farthing loaf of trete was to weigh twice the weight of wastel, on account of the bran left in it.
1266. Act 51 Henry III., Stat. Bread & Ale. Quando quarterium frumenti venditur pro xij. d. tunc panis quadrantis de Wastello … ponderabit sex libras & sexdecim solidos … Panis vero de trait [v.r. tret] ponderabit duos Wastellos.
c. 1290. Fleta, II. ix. § 1 [quoting prec.]. Panis de Treyt.
a. 1325. (Eng. tr.) MS. Rawl. B. 520, lf. 43 b. Of al hol bred þe furþingwort sal weie a Coket ant an half. Bred of trait sal weie tuuei wasteles. Bred of alle kunne corne sal weie tuuei cokettes.
14[?]. Ipswich Domesday, in Blk. Bk. Adm., II. 175. Summe [bakers] maken wastel, ferst coket, and trayt all oonly; and summe symnel and trayt.
1420. Marescalcia Prioris, in Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 359. Non panem album nec tret, non pondera. Ibid. (1425), 371. Panis albus ob’ minus per iij s. & panis de tret.
14[?]. Iter Camerarii, c. 9, in Acts Parl. Scot. (1844), I. App. iv. 697. Tercio quod non panificant quodlibet genus panis ut lex burgi requirit, videlicet quachetum, wastellum, Symnellum, panem alsamyn, purum panem, et panem mixtum de treyt.
1609. Skene, Chalmerland Air, ix., in Reg. Maj., 150 b. Baksters sould be challenged that … 4 They make not all kindes of bread, as law requyres; that is ane fage, symmell, wastell, pure cleane breade, mixed breade, and bread of trayt.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., s.v., Breade of treate, anno 51 H. 3, Statute of breade, &c., what it signifieth, I cannot learne. Ibid., s.v. Cocket, In the statutes of bread and ale, made anno 51 H. 3 … you have mention of bread coket, wastell bread, bread of trete, and bread of common wheate.
1674. Jeake, Arith. (1696), 74. Bread of Treet seems to be Houshold-Bread of the best Wheat unravelled, or ravelled through the coursest Boultel.
1863. Chambers’ Bk. Days, 15 Jan. I. 119/2. Trete bread, or bread of trete,… made of wheat meal once bolted, or from which the fine flour at one sifting had been removed. This was also known as ‘bis’ or brown bread, and probably owed its name to … bran being so largely its constituent.
