The Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue defines and illustrates every meaning of every word used in written English in Scotland up to 1700, when the Scots language merged with standard English. It touches every facet of medieval and renaissance Scottish life and society and supplies a wealth of illustration in the form of quotations accompanying every word and meaning it discusses. It is an indispensable reference tool for historians of Scots language, literature, politics, law, medicine, agriculture, and all other aspects of Scottish society. This "Scots OED" is published in paper-bound parts (fascicles) and also as volumes, each containing several parts.