clyack

English

Etymology

From Scots clyack, which is in turn from Scottish Gaelic caileag.

Noun

clyack (uncountable)

1. (Scotland, dated) Completion of the harvest season, harvesting the last sheaf of grain.

   get clyack

   finish the harvest

   • 1881, Walter Gregor, Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland, page 181:

     The “clyack” sheaf was cut by the maidens on the harvest field. On no account was it allowed to touch the ground.

   • 1888, J.G. Frazer, “Folk-lore at Balquhidder”, in The Folk-lore Journal, page 270:

     Mr. Duff, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, tells me that in his part of Aberdeenshire there is a competition as to who shall have the last sheaf (the clyack sheaf) like that at Balquhidder, but with this difference, that the last corn left standing and hidden is cut by the reaper himself, not, as at Balquhidder, by the girl who followed binding.

   • 2008 [c. 1892], James Wilson, edited by Peter Hills, Journal of My Life and Everyday Doings 1879-81, 1885-92, Volume 18 of Scottish History Society (series), page 188:

     There are still a good many stooks about the hill sides, and Ardiecow managed to get clyack tonight.

See also

• stook

Scots

Alternative forms

claaick, claik, cliack, clyck, klyack, klyock, glyack

Etymology

From Scottish Gaelic caileag (“girl”);^[1] compare maiden (“the last sheaf harvested, plaited and decorated with ribbons”).

Noun

clyack (uncountable)

1. the last sheaf of grain harvested at the end of the season

   Synonyms: kirn, hare, maiden

   tak clyack

   take in the last sheaf; finish the harvest

2. the end of the harvest season
   • 1886, C. Elphinstone-Dalrymple, “Duncan Gorme”, in David Herschell Edwards, editor, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets, page 34:

     It fell ahint the Clyack time, / In Cushnie whar he lay, / That Duncan Gorme has turn’d him aboot / An’ to his men did say,― […]

     It happened after harvest time / In Cushnie where he lay / That Duncan Gorme turned around / And to his men said:

   • 1929, James Alexander, Mains and Hilly: A Series of Dialogues in the Aberdeenshire Dialect, page 176:

     I got the button masel’ the hin’most clyack afore I wis mairret, an’ it didna cost ma a hoast, for aw kent or that time ’at aw wid be in ma nain hoose afore anidder clyack cam’ roon’.

     I got the prize myself at the last harvest-end before I was married, and it didn’t cost me much, for I knew at that time that I would be in a house of my own before another harvest season came around.

References

1. “clyack, n.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.