a. Orkney and Shetl. [f. TROW sb.4 + -IE, -Y.] Of or pertaining to the ‘trows’ or trolls; elfin; also, influenced by a ‘trow.’ So Trowist (nonce-wd.), a person credited with acquaintance with ‘trows’ and power to avert their influence.
1793. Statist. Acc. Scotl., VII. 396. Sponges are found upon the shore in great plenty, shaped like a man’s hand, and called by the people Trowie Gloves.
1825. Jamieson, Trowie adj., sickly, Orkn. … Shall we view this as signifying ‘under the malign influence of the Trow, or daemon’?
1840. New Statist. Acc. Scot. (1845), XV. 142 (Shetland). When a cow or sheep happens to turn sick or die, it is firmly believed … that the real animal has been taken away and something of a trowie breed substituted in its place.
1895. J. J. Haldane Burgess, Shetland Folklore, 99. He at once sent for an old woman who was celebrated as a ‘trowist.’ Ibid., 101. He … found lying on the ground and half-hidden among the heather, a beautifully-wrought ‘trowie’ dart or arrow.
