Chiefly Sc. Obs. Forms: 3 ȝemsle, 4 ȝemsel, -sele, -sale, -seill, -schele, ȝeymseill, ȝeemsell, ȝhemsall, -sell, yhemsale, 4–5 ȝemsall, 5 ȝhemsayl, yhemselle. [ad. ON. geymsla (f. geyma YEME v. + -sla = OE. -els), with assimilation to the native ȝeme YEME v.] Keeping, care, charge, custody.
c. 1200. Ormin, 5095. Ne segge icc þe nohht tatt te birrþ … All all se mikell ȝemsle, Þwerrt ut onn iwhillc oþerr mann Alls o þe sellfenn leggenn.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, i. (Petrus), 601. Þe quhilk gaff þame ine ȝemsale or twa knychttis, þat war fell. Ibid., xii. (Mathias), 245. Cryste gef it hyme ay in ȝemsele, Þo he wes thefe & ay wald steyle.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XI. 329. I trow he sall … Do his dewour, and virk so weill, That hym sall neyd no mair ȝeymseill [MS. E. ȝemseill].
a. 1400. Leges Burgorum, c. 3, in Acts Parl. Scot. (1844), I. 333/2. Bot gif … he [sc. ane uplandis man] war in þe kyngis oste or in yhemsale of þe kyngis castell.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xxvi. 4352. Keparis, þat it [sc. a castle] in ȝhemsayl [v.r. ȝemsall] hade.
