Forms: α. 4–5 waynescot, (4 -scote), 4–7 waynscot, 5–6 wayn(e)scotte, wayneskote, weynscot, (5 -scotte, 6 -skot), 5–7 waynscote, -scott, (5 wenscote, wansqwatte, waneskott, waynskote, waynscowttez (pl.), Sc. wanskoth), 6 wayn(e)skott, wenskot(te, weinscot, wainescot, (weanscott, wainscoate, wanskot(t, wenskett, Sc. wynscott), 6–7 wa(i)nscote, wainskot, wanescot, (6 -skot, 7 -scott), 6–8 wainscott, wanscot, (7 vain-, Sc. vandscott, weanscot, waynskot, wayn-scote, waincot), 7–9 wainscoat, (8 wanscoate), 6– wainscot. β. 4 north. vayneschote, wandschoth, 5 weynshet, 6 wa(y)ne-, weyneschot. [ad. MLG. wagenschot (1389 in Schiller and Lübben), app. f. wagen carriage, WAGON + schot (of uncertain meaning; cf. bokenschot, mod.LG. bökenschot, beechwood of superior quality). Cf. 16th c. Flemish waegheschot, waeghenschot (Kilian), WFlemish wageschot (De Bo), Du. wagenschot, WFris. wagenskot. The synonymous Flem. or Du. wandschot (Kilian), which may be the source of some of the Eng. forms, is either an etymologizing perversion of wagenschot or an independent formation on wand wall of a room. The Eng. examples of the word are earlier than those given in the MLG. and MD. dicts., and the first element appears already in the earliest instances assimilated to the Eng. WAIN sb.1
The etymology as above stated does not clearly account for the meaning, and there have been attempts to explain the first element differently. Kilian (1598), identifies it with Flem. waeghe wave, taking it to refer to the undulation in the grain of the wood. Some modern scholars regard it as an alteration of MDu. weeg wall (= OFris. wâch, OE. wáh, WOUGH). These suggestions are however open to strong objection, and the probability is that the first element is really wagen, though the original meaning of the compound remains for the present obscure.]
1. A superior quality of foreign oak imported from Russia, Germany and Holland, chiefly used for fine panel-work; logs or planks of this oak; oak boarding for panel-work. Now only technical.
1352–3. Ely Sacr. Rolls (1907), II. 153. Item solut. pro cc et dimid. de Waynscot empt. ad Lenne prec. de cent. xvs. xd. 1l. 19s. 7d.
1391–2. Norwich Sacrist’s Roll (MS.). Pro tabulis de Waynscot.
1404. in Royal & Hist. Lett. Hen. IV. (Rolls), I. 262. Nova navis cum tritico, braseo, farina … et lignis voaghenschot [? read waghen-] onustata.
[1407. in Hakluyt, Voy. (1599), I. 173. The said marchants [of the Hans of Almaine] doe alleage, that the customers & bailifs of the town of Southhampton do compel them to pay … for ech hundreth of bowstaues & boords called Waghenscot, 2. d.]
a. 1419. Liber Albus (Rolls), 238. De chescun c du bord appelle ‘weynscotte’ obole.
1426–7. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904), 66. Also for wayneskote, vj d.
1483. Churchw. Acc. S. Mary Virg., Oxford, in MS. Wood D. 3, fol. 260. De 4 s solut pro 4 asseribus vocat: weynshet.
1495. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 270. Chayres of waynscotte.
1496. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 290. Item, for xxiij burdis callit wanskoth, xvj s. viij d.
1522. Bury Wills (Camden), 117. A brode cheste of wayneskott.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 60. The Dutchemen bryng ouer Iron, Tymber, lether and Weynskot ready wrought.
1550. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 104/2. Exceptis … 300 asseribus querneis lie waneschot nuncupatis.
1583. Rates of Customs, D vij b. Playing tables Flaunders making of wainscot the dosen xvs.
1589. [? Nashe], Almond for Parrat, 1. A brother in Christ of his … kept his wainscot from waste, and his linnen from wearing; sufficeth he tombled his wife naked into the earth at high noone.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 231. In the midst of the Synagogue they haue a round seat made of Wainscot.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, 252. Seeing a wedge of Wainscot is fittest and most proper for cleaving of an oaken tree.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 108. An unlearned rout of contemptible people … who perhaps shall understand very little more than a hollow pipe made of tin or wainscot.
1732. M. Green, Grotto, 161. As spiders Irish wainscot flee.
1842. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., § 1686. The wood [of Quercus robur] is tolerably straight-grained and pretty free from knots, in many instances resembling the German species called wainscot. Ibid., 1689. There is a species of oak … imported from Holland, known under the name of Dutch wainscot, though grown in Germany, whence it is floated down the Rhine for exportation.
† b. A piece or a board of wainscot oak. Obs.
1388. in Nicolas, Hist. Royal Navy (1847), II. 476. Parcels in the store-house … ‘xxiii. barrell de tarre,… cc. waynscots.’
1396. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 123. Et in iij vayneschotes emp. pro j selour et j reredos … 18 d.
1486–7. Priory of Finchale (Surtees), p. ccclxxvi. Pro xvj waynscowttez ad vjd., viij s.
1532. Lett. & Papers Hen. VIII., V. 448. To John de Garnathoo of the Company of the Easterlings, for 100 wainscots, 66s. 8d.
1603. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 515/2. Ilk geist, corball and waynescott … ane penny.
1641. S. Smith, Royal Fishings, 4. Waynskots, Clapboards, Deale.
† c. Furniture made of wainscot. Obs.
1589. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), 144. I will my wainscott, as well chamberes and parleres, all wainscot beddes covered with wainescott.
1597. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), II. 227. I give to my sonne … all the waynescott glasse painted clothes borders above the waynscott tables.
2. Panel-work of oak or other wood, used to line the walls of an apartment.
1548. in Glasscock, Rec. St. Michael’s, Bp.’s Stortford (1882), 131. Item the weyneschot of the rode loft that was taken downe.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 194. Chambers boarded after the maner of owre waynscotte.
1584. Leycesters Commw. (1641), 154. The greedy Burglarer is lesse patient of stay … when he … perceiveth only some partition of wane-skot or the like, betwixt his fingers and the cofers or money bags.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. i. 88. This fellow wil but ioyne you together, as they ioyne Wainscot, then one of you wil proue a shrunke pannell.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 244. In the Quire the whole history of St. Bennet is very curiously made in Wainscot.
a. 1667. Cowley, Ess., Greatness (1906), 432. A convenient brick house, with decent Wainscot, and pretty Forest-work hangings.
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 77. It was carv’d in such a manner, as to resemble a piece of wainscot.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 235, ¶ 2. A certain Person … who when he is pleased with any Thing that is acted upon the Stage, expresses his Approbation by a loud Knock upon the Benches or the Wainscot. Ibid. (1715), Drummer, I. i. Like a rat behind a wainscot.
1730. W. Warren, Collectanea, in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 225. The Stair-case new lin’d with Deal wainscot painted.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 290. When we look upon the wainscot of a room where the panels are painted of a different colour from the stiles and mouldings.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 116. I twirl my thumbs, fall back into my chair, Fix on the wainscot a distressful stare.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xlii. The great oak-parlour, a long room, panelled with well-varnished wainscot.
1830. Tennyson, Mariana, vi. The mouse Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek’d.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. II. 613. The Jacobite country gentlemen … burned their commissions signed by James, and hid their arms behind wainscots or in haystacks.
1875. Miss Braddon, Strange World, II. i. 3. The wainscot was almost black with age.
† 3. transf. and fig. (Cf. 5 b.) Obs.
1588. Marprel. Epist. (Arb.), 31. His face is made of seasoned wainscot, and wil lie as fast as a dog can trot.
1607. Middleton, Fam. Love, III. iii. Cedars to make good wainscot in the House of Sincerity.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., King & No K., V. i. This Rascal fears neither God nor man, he has been so beaten: sufferance has made him Wainscot.
1630. D. Dyke, Myst. Selfe-Deceiuing, 374. Howsoeuer sometimes this kind of men haue faces of wainscote.
a. 1659. Osborn, Charac. &c. (1673), 640. How a few years hath changed Alabaster into Wainscot, and ruffled her Neck like a walking Buskin.
4. A book-name for several moths. (See 5 c.)
1819. Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 399. Ibid., 419.
1832. J. Rennie, Butterfl. & Moths, 87.
5. attrib. passing into adj. a. Made of wainscot. Of a room, lined with wainscot panelling.
1575. in Archæologia, XXX. 8. Item … ij waynscot chaires viije. Ibid., 14. Item a waynscott cheste, vs. Ibid. (1580), LXIV. 357. To mak … tow dores on for the portall and on other for the lytle wayneschot chambre.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 229/2. Mensa vndulata vndatim crispa,… a wainscot table.
1593. Drayton, Ecl., iv. 91. The loftie Pines were presently hew’d downe, And Men, Sea-Monsters, swam the bracky Flood, In Wainscote Tubs to seeke out Worlds vnknowne.
1594. Nashe, Terrors of Night, Wks. (Grosart), III. 265. Through him my tender wainscot doore is deliuered from much assault and battrie.
1649. Davenant, Love & Honour, III. iii. 124. Look for one of my cheek teeth That dropt under the wanscote bed.
1702. Post Man, 6–8 Jan., 2/1., Advt. At Stanmore … is a fair House to be let, 4 Wainscot rooms on a floor, with a Kitchin, [etc.].
1711. in G. Lorimer, Leaves fr. Bk. West Kirke, vii. (1885), 64. Item,… a green pulpit cloath with silk fringes, six wanscot stools for the Collections.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), II. 205. They all remained in the next parlour, a wainscot partition only parting the two.
1796. J. Owen, Trav. Europe, 1791–2, I. 85. Those sculptural vagaries, in which a human figure is often made … the support of a wainscot pulpit.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Vanderput & S., i. 6. I am in the wainscoat parlour to-day.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, liii. My room … was divided from the Manager’s room by a wainscot partition.
1851. W. Laxton, Builder’s Price Bk. (ed. 28), 58. Wainscot floors.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 5719. A wainscot sideboard.
1913. Blackw. Mag., July, 14/2. The room … had … a wainscot table, rosewood chairs [etc.].
† b. Resembling wainscot, hardened or colored like old wainscot. Obs.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., K ij b. Your waynscot face and brasen countenaunce.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretorie, I. (1595), 91 b. Audacious and wainscot impudencie on the other side returneth the greatest impediment in anie thing to bee obtained.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 117. But it is not the wainscott forhead of a Rudhuddibras, that can arreare such an huge opinion.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 47. If you marke it, mustard looks of the tanned wainscot hue, of such a withered wrinklefaced beldam as she was, that was altred thereinto.
1626. Middleton, Quiet Life, IV. ii. How does thy Mistriss that sits in a Wainscot Gown, like a Citizens Lure to draw the Customers?
1707. J. Stevens, trans. Quevedo’s Com. Wks. (1709), 469. They are Wainscot Faces compair’d with white men.
a. 1745. Swift, Dick, a Maggot, 11. ’Tis beyond the pow’r of meal The gypsey visage to conceal; For, as he shakes his wainscot chops, Down ev’ry mealy atom drops.
c. In book-names of certain moths: see 4.
1832. J. Rennie, Butterfl. & Moths, 187.
6. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attrib., as wainscot board, color, log, oak, rafter, timber, work; b. parasynthetic, as † wainscot-faced adj.; c. similative, as wainscot joined adj.
1420. in For. Acc. 3 Hen. VI., G/2. In diuersis peciis maeremii *Waynescotbordes.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., Navig., xxiv. (1597), 331. Another square boxe of thinne wainscot boorde.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, III. 525. Most Rooms are now Painted *Wainscot Colour.
1588. Marprel. Epist. (Arb.), 30. Our impudent, shamelesse, and *wainscote faced bishops.
1640. Howell, Dodona’s Gr., 22. But now mee thinkes I spie againe a Sunn burnt wainscot-fac’d Satyr.
1554. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Mary (1914), 164. viij targettes of tree shelboard of *waynscot ioyned fair worke for the said maskers.
1812. J. Smyth, Pract. Customs, 249. *Wainscot logs, 8 inches square or upwards, are charged by the load of 50 cubic feet.
1832. Planting, 130, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. That which is brought down the Rhine from the forests of southern Germany, and imported into this country by the name of *wainscoat oak.
c. 1560. Aberd. Reg. (MS.), XXVI. (Jam.). *Wynscott rauchter.
1875. T. Laslett, Timber, xvi. 96. Riga *wainscot timber passes through the process of bracking prior to its being shipped.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 198/2. *Wainscot or seeling worke.
1609. Acc. Balliol Coll., Oxford (MS.). Item, for 2 seates, and wainscott worke, in the librarie, 5 li.
