Sting sb.¹

Sc. and north. Forms: 1 stæng, (-ncg), 1, 4 steng, (1 -ncg, -ngc, -nc, -gn); 5 steyng, 5–6 steing; 1, 5–6 styng, 5– sting. [OE. stęng masc.: see STANG sb.¹]

  1.  A pole, staff.

c. 725.  Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), C 450. Claua, steng [Epinal stegn, Erfurt stęng].

a. 900.  O. E. Martyrol., 8 Aug., 142. Þa het se dema hi nacode gebindan to anum stenge ond hi bærnan mid fyre.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxvi. (John Baptist), 850. His harme … stud strekit þare a hyldry steng as it ware.

1508.  Dunbar, Poems, vi. 100. Et duos rusticos de rure Berand a barell on a styng.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, III. ix. 87. With ane scharpit and brint sting of tre, Out did we boir and pyke his mekle E.

1571.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), I. 361. ij styngs for ye wayne x^d.

1580.  Shipping List of Dundee, in D. Wedderburne’s Compt. Bk., etc. (S.H.S.), 198. Sex thousand steingis.

1643.  Orkney Witch Trial, in Abbotsf. Club Miscell., I. 177. If it war the dead manis sting which trublit him, it wold cuir and heale him.

1703.  in W. Maitland, Hist. Edin. (1753), 329. Twentie four Sayes, and threttie sex Stings with Knags, whereof sex standing full of Water, and the Stings hanging by them, [etc.].

1724.  in Cramond, Ann. Banff (1893), II. 219. For a sting to drive the oxen, 1s. Sc.

  b.  A pole or staff or club used as a weapon; the shaft of a pike or spear. Often staff and sting.

a. 900.  O. E. Martyrol., 20 Jan., 27. Þa het he hine mid stengum þyrscan.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxvi. 47. Fustibus, stencgum [c. 975 Rushw. stængum].

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 24029 (Edin.). Þai draw him forþe with staf and steng.

c. 1470.  Henryson, Mor. Fab., Fox, Wolf & Cadger, 151. That had not in ny hand sa mekle gude, As star or sting, ȝone truker for to strike.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, II. 49. Vpon the hed ane with the steing hitt he.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, IX. viii. 126. The Troianis … dang thame down with pikkis and poyntit styngis.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. (Rolls), II. 96. With staf and sting syne slew richt mony ane.

1550.  Lyndesay, Sqr. Meldrum, 254. Bot thair wes daylie skirmishing, Quhair men of armis brak monie sting.

1590–1.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., IV. 587. With thair lance stalffis and stingis [they] gave him divers bauch, blaa and bludie straikis.

  c.  (To carry) with or by sting and ling [? LINE sb.²]: with a rope suspended from a pole borne on two or more persons’ shoulders. Also sting and ling (without prep.); also fig. = bodily, by force.

1571.  R. Bannatyne, Jrnl. (1806), 130. He was borne up with sex workmen with sting and ling, and Mr. Robert Maitland haulding up his heid.

1615.  Chron. Perth, in R. Chambers, Dom. Ann. Scot. (1858), I. 453. Upon Fasten’s E’en there was twa puncheons of Bourdeaux wine carriet, sting and ling, on men’s shoulders, on the ice, at the mids of the North Inch.

1816.  Scott, Antiq., xliv. He … never intended to look near the place again, unless he had been brought there sting and ling.

1883.  J. Martine, Reminisc. Old Haddington, 143. Cut figures of two brewer’s men, in antique dress, carrying a barrel of ale ‘Sting and Ling.’

  2.  A pointed instrument used in thatching.

1808.  Jamieson.

1815.  Notes to Pennecuik’s Descr. Tweeddale, 88 (Jam.). The thatch … is thrust into holes previously made obliquely upwards in the divots by an iron-shod, dove-tailed-pointed hand instrument, called a sting.

1893–4.  Northumb. Gloss.

  3.  Comb., as sting-burden, -lift, -man, † -sowel; † stingis-dint, a fine for an assault with a stick.

1701.  in J. Bulloch, Pynours (1887), 73. Crews for caryeing *sting burdens.

1153–95.  Carta Hugonis, in Boldon Bk., etc. (Surtees), p. xlii. In burgo non debet blodwite nec merchete nec heriot nec *stengesdint [printed -duit] exigi.

14[?].  Burgh Lawis, xvii. in Anc. Laws Scot. (Burgh Rec. Soc.), 10. Quod infra burgum non debet exaudiri blodewit nec styngisdynt nec merchet.

1701.  in J. Bulloch, Pynours (1887), 74. Each *Sting lift caried by two men is to pay the double of ane back burden.

1554.  Extracts Burgh Rec. Edin. (1871), II. 313. To vj *stingmen of the town to beir thir foirsaids stanis furth of the querrellis viij^s. Ibid. (1583) (1882), IV. 303. The persouns vnderwrittin to be polkmen and stingmen and metters vpoun the said schoir.

1235–52.  Rentalia Glaston. (Somerset Rec. Soc.), 88. j palum quem vocant *sting soghles.