Sc. Obs. Forms: see FORE- pref. and GRANDSIRE. [f. FORE- pref. + GRANDSIRE.] a. A grandfather; = L. avus. b. A great-grandfather; = L. proavus. c. A great-great-grandfather. d. An ancestor.
a. 1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. vi. 95. The name he bair of his fore grandschir wycht.
b. 1474. Act. Audit. (1839), 34/2. Þai fand þe said Robertis forgrantsire deit last vest & sesit of þe said landes.
1500–20. in Dunbar’s Poems (1893), 315.
| My foir grandschir, hecht Fyn Mackcowll, | |
| That dang the Devill and gart him ȝowll. |
c. 1541. Books Counc. & Sess., B 18. 44 (Jam.). Be his fader, gudschir, grandshir, and forgrandshir, lardis of Fingiltoun.
1633. Acts Chas. I. (1814), V. 64/2. To the forsaids persones … thair fathers guidschirs, grandschirs, foirgrandschirs [etc.].
d. 1549. Compl. Scot. (1873), 3–4. Ȝour foir grandscheir godefroid of billon kyng of iherusalem hes nocht alanerly kepitande deffendit his pepil.
fig. 1581. N. Burne, Disp. Relig. xviii. 62/2. Frere Martine Lauter your foirgrandschir passed mair cannelie to vorke.
