Also 5 fyrth. See also FRITH sb.3 [app. a. ON. fiǫrðr: see FIORD.
Firth or frith was originally a Sc. word, introduced into English literary use c. 1600.]
An arm of the sea; an estuary of a river.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. xx. 108.
| Ðat of fors, as Wynd þame movyd, | |
| Come in þe Fyrth þan þame behowyd. |
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. vi. 123.
| The ile of Cecill devidit hes all haile; | |
| Ane narrow fyrth flowis, baith evin and morne, | |
| Betuix thai costis and citeis in sounder schorne. |
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), I. 9.
| So hapnit tham throw aventure to wend | |
| Out throw ane firth endlang ane cragie cost. |
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 43. In many firths and armes of the sea, by reason of the vnlike risings of the planets in euery coast, the tides are diuers, and disagreeing in time.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., lxxxiv. (1863), I. 215. Glad may their souls be that are safe over the firth, Christ having paid the freight.
1774. Nicholls, Corr. w. Gray (1843), 175. The Castle, from whose summit the Firth of Forth is seen for many miles glittering along a rich landscape.
1839. W. Chambers, Tour Holland, 31/1. Amsterdam stands on the southern bank of the Y, or Ai, a neck of sea inferior in breadth to the Mersey at Liverpool, but possessing all the appearance of a navigable firth.
1865. Geikie, Scen. & Geol. Scot., 125. To a small extent on the east coast, but on a great scale along the western side of the island, the sea runs inland in long, narrow firths or fiords.
