The OED was published for the first time on a CD-ROM on 1992, permitting searching of the whole text and therefore the retrieval of all the citations of a particular author.
Buchan has 464 citations. This compares with 33,303 for Shakespeare, 5,455 for Dr. Johnson, 1,953 for Wordsworth, 1,264 for Milton, and 390 for W.S.Gilbert. Among novelists there are 1,882 citations for Dickens, 1,631 for P.G.Wodehouse, 1,395 for Trollope, 1,093 for Jane Austen, 1030 for H.G.Wells, 880 for Thomas Hardy, 548 for Galsworthy, 545 for Conan Doyle, 494 for Arnold Bennett, 322 for Wilkie Collins, 234 for G.K.Chesterton and 130 for Victor Canning (a special interest of my own). Oscar Wilde is only cited 160 times, admittedly on a smaller body of work. These figures cannot be guaranteed as accurate. Sometimes there is inconsistency in the way writers are identified in the dictionary. Wordsworth, for instance, appears as Wordsworth and Wordsw., and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as Doyle, Doyle A Conan, Doyle C. and Doyle Conan. I found most of the Buchan citations under “Buchan J.”, but I had to dig quite a number out from those recorded under “Buchan” where they were intermingled with several other Buchans from earlier centuries.
A high score is not necessarily an indicator of literary merit, but it does suggest a writer who is using language adventurously and one whose works appeal to the compilers and are kept on their shelves.
The Buchan works cited and the number of quotations from each book are:
plus a further 12 from journalism or from Buchan quotes in other people’s writings.
The surprise in this listing is the very high standing of The watcher by the threshold and A prince of the captivity compared with more obviously popular works. This suggests they must have been favourites of one or more of the compilers. Such biases are inevitable; gaining a citation seems often to be a matter of chance. Was the OED researcher assigned to a particular section of the alphabet a keen Buchan reader? Or was somebody especially on the lookout for German or Afrikaans words adopted into English and thought Buchan a good source to check? If we look at the distribution of the entries through the alphabet, we find significantly more entries than we might expect under the following letters: K, M, P, R, S and W, which suggests some bias, especially in the case of the P words.
Words which seem to have been coined by Buchan, since no earlier use is recorded, include bomber, daimonic, doddery, and fagdom. He also brought several foreign words and phrases into English, namely contre-espionage, embusqué, konditorei, and trait d’union (French for hyphen, but used figuratively). A lot of his innovations concern war and spying. He introduced mole (for a secret agent), net (of spies), and null (as part of a cipher).
He is responsible for several colloquialisms. He seems to be the first novelist to write gotta for got to in representing working class speech (in The three hostages). He was first with the phrase “free, white and twenty-one” in Courts of the morning. One of his coinages, unpacifist (“he swore in a most unpacifist style”—Greenmantle), does not seem to have taken, since there are no other citations. He is also responsible for introducing the use of black as an intensifier, as in “black afraid” or “black angry”.
There are many Afrikaans or African language terms, as you might expect, but hardly any of them originate with him. They are mostly cited from Prester John and Mr. Standfast. There are a few Scots words, kenspeckle and tattie-bogle for instance.
The complete list including all the citations is too long to reproduce in the JBS Journal, but it is being mounted here at: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/marlodge1/buchan/
John Higgins
Shaftesbury, March 2009.
I have emboldened the head words where Buchan’s is the first citation of a set, i.e. where he appears to have coined a word or been first with a collocation.
aasvogel \1910 Prester John iv. 73, I thought it was an aasvogel, but another thought it was a baboon.
Adam \1900 Half-Hearted I found people I didn't know from Adam drinking the old toasts.
air-plane \1916 Nelson's Hist. War, XIV, 48. Airplane reconnaissance.
art nouveau \1928 Runagates Club 103 A new plate of gun-metal and oxidised silver, lettered in the best style of art nouveau.
aunt (sense 5) \1919 Mr. Standfast viii. 168 My holy aunt! The General disguised as Charlie Chaplin!
back- (sense 7) \1924 Three Hostages xxi, 299. The body was heavy, and he was clearly a back-going beast.
bag (sense 12c) \1910 Prester John xix. 316, I caught a glimpse of my face in it, … lined with blue bags below the eyes.
bag (sense 18c) \1919 Mr. Standfast ii. 52 Unless I went out to the Front again and got put in the bag and sent to the same Boche prison.
bandbox \1916 Greenmantle xi. 143 Better a bloody end in a street scrap than the tender mercies of that bandbox bravo.
bash \1919 Mr. Standfast viii. 167 Ye ken what a man’s like when he’s been on the bash.
berghaan \1910 Prester John viii, A brace of white berghaan circled far up in the blue.
besom (sense 7) \1930 Castle Gay xvi. 255 She’s a determined besom.
black (sense 17) \1910 Prester John v. 97, I’ll admit the truth to you, Davie. I’m black afraid. \1915 Salute to adventurers iii. 47, I had been sore at my imprisonment, I was black angry at this manner of release.
block (sense 14f) \1915 39 steps i. 13 My flat was the first floor in a new block behind Langham Place.
boiler-plate (sense c, overlapping slabs of rock) \1924 Three hostages xi. 165 Left me to finish my ascent by way of some very loose screes and unpleasant boiler-plates.
bomber \1915 Nelson’s Hist. War V. 25 The bombers … seizing one of these rocket-like bombs from their belts … hurl them high above the parapet.
bone (sense 12b) \1915 39 steps iv. 81 The bare bones of the tale were all that was in the book.
Bowery \1924 Three hostages xviii. 263 ‘Hell!’ he cried, with a torrent of Bowery oaths.
bracket \1916 Greenmantle xxi. 293 The shell dropped ten yards to our right. A second later another fell behind us … . ‘They know their business. They’re bracketing.’
Bristol \1924 Three hostages iv. 57, I had a glass of the Bristol Cream for which the club was famous.
bump-supper \1940 Memory hold the door iii. 61 Raymond Asquith wrote the poem, … On a Viscount who died on the Morrow of a Bump Supper.
burrow (sense 2b) \1915 39 steps iii. 61 He swung his heels up on the seat, and burrowed a frowsy head into the cushions.
bus \1924 Three hostages xii. 179 Got here last night after a clinkin’ journey, with the bus [sc. an aeroplane] behavin’ like a lamb.
bush-pig \1910 Prester John xiv, I was inclined to think him a very large bush-pig.
bust-up \1915 39 steps vi. 140 A bust-up motor-car.
busyness \1929 Courts of morning iii. 351 It was a week of desperate busyness.
C.O. \1919 Mr. Standfast i. 30 ‘Launcelot’s a C.O., you know,’ said Miss Doria … I remembered that the letters stood … for ‘Conscientious Objector’.
call (sense 6l) \1915 Salute to adventurers xxiii. 328 His breath laboured, and there was pain in his eyes. ‘I’ve got my call,’ he said faintly.
Cape cart \1910 Prester John vii, The half-caste who called him ‘Sir’ and drove his Cape-cart.
change (sense 7d) \1910 Prester John xii. 209 Still I said nothing. If the man had come to mock me, he would get no change out of David Crawford.
chee-chee \1924 Three Hostages ix, 133. Then to my surprise he spoke in English---good English, with the chi-chi accent of the Indian.
chockstone \1924 Three hostages xxi. 312 After a rather awkward chockstone, I came to a fork.
Choctaw \1929 Courts of morning 13 He had a good many private expressions that were Choctaw to those that did not know him.
class \1919 Mr. Standfast i. iii. 60 Their blessed class war, which cuts across nationalities.
clock \1910 Prester John xvii. 276 What makes you try to put the clock back? You want to wipe out the civilization of a thousand years, and turn us all into savages.
come (sense 29c) \1916 Greenmantle i. 1 You’ll be a blighted brass-hat, coming it heavy over the hard-working regimental officer.
compagnon de voyage \1936 Island of sheep iv. 56 The women! … Gaiety girls---salaried compagnons de voyage.
confrater \1931 Blanket of Dark 35 But the other, the old man with the small white beard? … Doubtless a confrater, or lay member of the Abbey.
contre-espionage \1919 Mr. Standfast xiii. 233 A sensible man would have gone off to the contre-espionage people and told them his story.
corridor carriage \1919 Mr. Standfast viii. 151 It was not a corridor carriage, but one of the old-fashioned kind.
count (sense 2b) \1915 39 steps i. 15, I need help worse than any man ever needed it, and I want to know if I can count you in.
crab (sense 4) \1924 Three hostages 25 The crab of the place was its neighbours.
crackerjack \1933 Prince of captivity 219 I’ve got a crackerjack of an editor.
dagga (dacha) \1910 Prester John vii. 119 He must have been a dacha-smoker, for he coughed hideously.
daimonic \1903 Afr. Colony xix. 393 The faults of … Cecil Rhodes’ methods … did not impair that legacy of daimonic force which he left to his countrymen.
dash (sense 7f) \1916 Greenmantle xx. 268 The sound was regular and concerted---dot, dash, dot---dash, dot, dot … .the longs and shorts of the Morse Code.
day (sense 9c) \1936 Island of sheep xiii. 256 The reconnaissance is complete, gentlemen. Tomorrow is The Day.
decant (sense 1c) \1915 39 steps vii. 171, I was decanted at Crewe … and had to wait till six to get a train for Birmingham.
deflate \1940 Memory hold the door viii. 185 They were sansculottes who sought to deflate majestic reputations.
déraciné \1926 Dancing Floor i. vi, She rides well, but her manners are atrocious. Lord, how I dislike these déracinés!
detention camp \1916 Greenmantle v. 62 The lieutenant discoursed a lot about prisoners and detention-camps.
doddery \1919 Mr. Standfast xvii, When he got on his feet he was as doddery as an old man.
dogeate \1923 J. C. Powell in Nations of To-Day, Italy 5 In the Dogeate of Pietro Orseolo.
double bluff \1919 Mr. Standfast iii. 64 His device was apparently the Double Bluff. That is to say, when he had two courses open to him, A and B, he pretended he was going to take B, and so got us guessing that he would try A. Then he took B after all.
drift (sense 14b) \1915 39 steps vii. 165, I found shelter below an over-hanging rock … where a drift of dead brackens made a tolerable bed.
dommerers (beggars pretending to be dumb) \1931 Blanket of Dark xvi. 304 There was a troop of crowders in the little town, and as many cozeners and dommerers as if it had been an abbey-gate.
dump (noun 4 sense 1c) \1916 Battle of Somme 55 That same day we … took a ‘dump’ of German stores.
dunny \1922 Huntingtower vii. 152 Sleepin’ in coal-rees and dunnies and dodgin’ the polis.
ear-ringed \1924 Three hostages xiii. 192 The earringed Jewess.
edge \1924 Three hostages xvi. 227 His manner had not the ease it used to have. He seemed on the edge about something.
edgy \1915 39 steps i. 33 Then I could see that he began to get edgy again. He listened for little noises.
embusqué \1916 Greenmantle i. 4 Not some embusqué business in an office, but a thing compared to which your fight at Loos was a Sunday-school picnic.
emplace \1915 Nelson’s Hist. WarV. 26 They had an ordinary range of four to five miles, and this allowed them to be emplaced well to the rear out of any danger from the enemy.
en cabochon \1910 Prester John (1922) xi. 150 There were fifty-five rubies in it … . In shape they were oval, cut on both sides en cabochon.
Eno \1924 Three hostages ix. 127 ‘I can take it that there’s nothing wrong with me?’ ‘Nothing that a game of squash and a little Eno won’t cure’.
entry (sense 4c) \1924 Three hostages vii. 101 Thank God that we have a man like him among the young entry.
Epirote \1915 39 steps i. 21 He has a bodyguard of Epirotes that would skin their grandmothers. \Ibid. iv. 82 Epirote guards.
Ercles (MSND mispronunciation of Hercules) \1922 Huntingtower ii. 36 The Ercles vein---‘God’s in His Heaven, all’s right with the world.’ No good, Mr McCunn.
essenwood \1910 Prester John vi, We took a path up the Berg among groves of stinkwood and essenwood.
Ethiopianism \1910 Prester John vii. 131 It is what they call ‘Ethiopianism’, and American negroes are the chief apostles.
Eton \1915 39 steps i. 18 An elegant young man who talks Eton-and-Harrow English.
expect (sense 4a) \1923 I xii. 191, I … may be absent for days. Expect me back when you see me.
fagdom \1902 Watcher by Threshold ii. ii. 118 From the anomalous insignificance of fagdom Colin climbed up the School.
feature (sense 4b) \1919 Mr. Standfast xiii. 245 Were you ever a cinema actor, Dick? … ‘Featuring Mary Lamington.’ How does the jargon go?
fellow (sense 9a) \1919 Mr. Standfast ix. 170 You’re going to be a stout fellow and start in two hours’ time. And you’re going to take me with you. \1922 Huntingtower iv. 76 ‘I got inside the House.’ ‘Stout fellow,’ said Heritage.
fishing-pole \1931 Blanket of Dark 52 He was … able to spend long days … on the meres with his fishing pole.
flimsy (sense 2) \1916 Greenmantle i. 1, I had just finished breakfast … when I got Bullivant’s telegram … . I flung him the flimsy with the blue strip pasted down on it.
free (sense 1d—Buchan is first with this collocation) \1929 Courts of morning ii. xiv. 346 We’re all of us free, white, twenty-one, and hairy-chested, and we know how to be kind to a pretty girl.
furriner \1924 Three hostages xvii. 242 The worst of them furriners … is that you can’t never be sure what they thinks of you.
gallery (sense 4d) \1925 John Macnab iii. 59 Sir Archie was aware that his style of jumping was not graceful and he was discomposed by this sudden gallery.
get-rich-quick \1940 Memory hold the door v. 114 The get-rich-quick offscourings of European capitals.
giddy (sense 3b) \1915 39 steps iv. 97 A giddy lot Scudder’s friends cared for peace and reform.
gimlety \1919 39 steps 13 Small gimlety blue eyes.
glisk \1922 Huntingtower vii. 138, I took a walk and got a glisk of the House and I liked the look of it.
go-fever \1900 Half-hearted vi. 78 There comes a thing called the go-fever, which is not amenable to reason.
gotta \1924 Three hostages xviii. 263 He … went forward as if to take her arm. ‘You gotta come along,’ I heard.
ground floor \1916 Greenmantle xii. 159 The promoters are keeping it to themselves. They aren’t taking in more than they can help on the ground-floor.
guddler \1940 Memory hold the door 304, I was an expert ‘guddler’, scooping up trout from below stones in the channel.
hairy (sense 1d, ill-bred) \1922 Huntingtower xi. 213, I can’t say I ever liked him … . Bit hairy about the heels.
hands-up v. \1929 Courts of morning iii. 307 They hands-upped like lambs. We’ve gotten a nice little bag----fourteen hundred and seventy-three combatant soldiers.
hat (sense 5c) \1925 John Macnab xv. 312 Palliser-Yeates lost at Glenraden … and now I’ve made a regular hat of things at Haripol.
have (sense 24d) \1910 Prester John vi. 108 ‘Had the man any news?’ I asked. ‘He had and he hadn’t.’
hobo \1925 John Macnab vii. 157 The gillies have … gathered in some wretched hobo they found looking at the river.
hoick \1916 Greenmantle ii. 24, I had got myself adjusted to this trench business … . And now you have hoicked me out.
horizon blue (the colour of French army uniforms) \1919 Mr. Standfast xiv. 248 There was very little khaki or horizon-blue about.
horn \1915 Salute to adventurers xi. 163 Then he produced some papers, and putting on big horn spectacles, proceeded to instruct me in them.
hummel (hornless stag) \1925 John Macnab iv, A hummel, a great fellow of fully twenty stone.
ice \1916 Greenmantle ix. 117 Because the German mercantile marine was laid on ice till the end of the war, they had turned him on to this show.
ice-cave \1933 Prince of captivity i. iii. 95 He would draw terrible pictures of an ice-cave at Gundbjorns Fjord, and two dead men.
impracticality \1926 Dancing Floor ii. x. 187 The impracticality of an entrance … at that point.
Inkosi \1910 Prester John xii. 215 Courage, Inkoos; in an hour’s time you will be free.
Jabberwock \1902 Watcher by Threshold iii. 38 It was the strangest jumble of vowels and consonants I had ever met … . It was some maniac talking Jabberwock to himself.
Jerusalem (sense 2) \1933 Prince of captivity i. ii. 70 For the first time Adam told another of … his childhood home and its lonely peace … . ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘it is as I guessed. We have each our Jerusalem.’
kamik \1933 Prince of captivity iii. 106 Their reindeer-skin kamiks had been worn into holes.
kaross \1910 Prester John viii. 151, I … flung my kaross on the cartel which did duty as a bed.
kenspeckle \1916 Greenmantle xx. 259 The immediate front of a battle is a bit too public for any one to lie hidden in by day, especially when two or three feet of snow make everything kenspeckle.
kitless \1936 Island of sheep ix. 160 He went off with the women … to look after her wardrobe, for she also was kit-less.
knock (sense 12f) \1926 Dancing Floor i. i. 11 First string of the ‘Varsity mile. Believed … to be going to knock five seconds off his last year’s time.
knockabout \1924 Three hostages xiii. 183 He liked plays with shooting in them, and knockabout farce.
konditorei \1935 House of Four Winds iii. 69 He was in the habit of sampling … whatever Unnutz produced in the way of café and konditorei.
Koreish \1916 Greenmantle ii. 23 To capture all Islam … the man must be of the Koreish, the tribe of the Prophet himself … . There are families … that claim Koreish blood.
krantz (spellings with and without t are evenly divided in the citations) \1916 Greenmantle xxi. 283 A little hill split the valley, and on its top was a kranz of rocks.
kurhaus \1935 House of Four Winds 12 Mr. McCunn … accepted the consultant’s prescription, and rooms were taken for him at the Rosensee kurhaus.
kya \1910 Prester John xvi. 257 Inanda’s Kraal was a cluster of kyas and rondavels.
Labour (sense 2c) \1932 Gap in Curtain iii. 149 The younger Tories as a whole were enthusiastic, and, what is more significant, the Left Wing of Labour blessed it cordially. \Ibid., Collinson, a young Labour member from the Midlands, declared that Geraldine was the best Socialist of them all.
leader (sense 22) \1932 Gap in Curtain i. 54 Each of us must concentrate on one particular part to which his special interest was pledged---Tavanger on the first City page, for example, Mayot on the leader page, etc …
lid (sense 1e) \1930 Castle Gay xiv. 216 You can see for yourself how that would put the lid on it.
life (sense `12a; Buchan is first with the phrase “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken”) \1919 Mr. Standfast v. 105 ‘Back to Glasgow to do some work for the cause,’ I said lightly. ‘Just so,’ he said, with a grin. ‘It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.’ \1924 Three hostages xvi. 227 That’s life, my dear. We’ve got to go on to the finish anyhow, trusting that luck will turn.
lily (sense 5) \1935 House of Four Winds 22 It’s rather like painting the lily, you know.
Lochinvar \1936 Island of sheep ix. 170 The young Lochinvar business was rather out of my usual line.
loden \1916 Greenmantle vii. 98 Long shooting capes made of a green stuff they call loden. \Ibid. xv. 196 Blue jeans, loden cloak.
lodge (sense 15) \1933 Prince of captivity ii. i. 147 The weekly lodge meetings.
log jam \1940 Memory hold the door v. 101 He could do what the lumberman does in a log-jam, and pick out the key log which, once moved, sets the rest going.
long (sense 15) \1932 Gap in Curtain i. 64, I … set myself … to a long-range forecast---what would be likely to happen on June 10th a year ahead.
look (sense 10a) \1929 Courts of morning 13, I admitted that it looked like it, and said that if Blenkiron had been captured by bandits … his captors had done the worst day’s work of their lives.
look (sense 47) \1932 Gap in Curtain ii. 97 He hoped, while in the country, to have a look round.
loudspeaker \1930 Castle Gay xiii. 208 Their ears were greeted by the bray of a loud-speaker to which the wives by their house-doors were listening.
Lovat \1922 Huntingtower i. 16 A most disreputable tweed suit … had once been what … is called a Lovat mixture, but was now a nondescript sub-fusc.
luck (sense 3a) \1926 Dancing Floor i. ii. 53 Something about the features … struck me as familiar. As luck would have it, it turned out to be Vernon.
M.I. (military intelligence) \1929 Courts of morning ii. i. 177 They’ve first-rate cavalry, but indifferent M.I.
machair (coastal strip of grassland) \1930 Castle Gay xvii. 271 The machars, yellowing with autumn, stretched for miles before him.
made (sense 9e) \1929 Courts of morning 25 Sandy in a greasy dress suit and a made-up black tie.
Magna Mater \1919 Mr. Standfast xxi. 356 There was a strange cult in the ancient world, the worship of Magna Mater---the Great Mother.
maharanee \1924 Ld. Minto x. 280 The Maharani sang Scots songs to him from behind the purdah.
majoritian \1918 Nelson’s Hist. War XX. 118 Early in June came the delegation of the German Majority Socialists, which included---besides Scheidemann, the Majoritarian leader---that Hermann Müller who, on the eve of the declaration of war, had invited the French Socialists to vote against war credits.
majority \1918 Hist. War XX. 125 The great governing parties, apart from the Conservatives on the extreme right and the Minority Socialists on the extreme left, were the Catholic Centre, the Radicals, the National Liberals, and the Majority Socialists.
mamba \1910 Prester John iv. 80 A black mamba might appear out of the tangle.
man (sense 21) \1902 Watcher by Threshold v. ii. 277, I know he’s supposed to be a man’s man … but I’m honest enough to own to detesting him.
Mannlicher \1922 Huntingtower xiv. 267 McGuffog, who was a marksman, was also given a sporting Mannlicher.
maréchal \1919 Mr. Standfast xx. 355 They will not pass. Your Maréchal will hold them.
marula \1910 Prester John ix. 168 Tied up to a merula tree, were two of the finest beasts I had seen in Africa.
Mashona \1936 Island of sheep iv. 68 They are Mashonas and are timid as rabbits.
mass-priest \1902 Watcher by Threshold ii. 109 The family changed its faith, and an Episcopal chaplain took the place of the old mass-priest in the tutoring of the sons.
matinée \1924 Three hostages iv. 54 He’s not in the least the ordinary matinée idol. He is … adored by women and also liked by men.
Mayfair \1933 Prince of captivity ii. i. 146 Clothes slightly astray from the conventions of Mayfair.
mealie-pap \1922 Bk. Escapes vi. 120 For food he had to trust to mealie-pap at Kafir kraals.
merchant (sense 3) \1919 Mr. Standfast ix. 176 Some movie-merchant had got a graft with the Government, and troops had been turned out to make a war film.
Mespot \1933 Prince of captivity i. iii. 107 What front were you on---the Western, Palestine, Mespot?
military (sense 3b) \1933 Prince of captivity i. ii. 66 The military police arrived in quest of him.
Milton \1933 Prince of captivity i. iv. 125 We’ve got to see that our Miltons don’t remain mute and inglorious, but above all that our Hampdens are not left to rot on a village green.
mole (noun 2, sense 2c. Buchan seems to be first with the sense of secret agent.) \[1925 House of Four Winds xi. 234, I also have certain moles at my command … .When the Cirque Doré mobilizes itself it has many eyes and ears.
money (sense 8) \1936 Island of sheep vi. 105 He’s a stockbroker---a one-man firm which he founded himself. His interests? Not financial exclusively---indeed, he professes to despise the whole money-spinning business.
monkey \1924 Three hostages ix. 131 It’s up to the few sahibs like him in that damned monkey-house at Westminster to make a row about it.
monkey-face \1915 39 steps i. 12, I went home, dressed, dined at the Café Royal, and turned into a music-hall. It was a silly show, all capering women and monkey-faced men.
mopane \1910 Prester John iv. 87 The mopani trees with their dull green wearied me.
mossback (sense 2b) \1924 Three hostages i. 10, I was becoming such a mossback that I had almost stopped reading the papers.
motor n. (sense 5) \1929 Courts of morning iii. i. 320 The raiders … helped themselves … loading the loot into light motor-wagons. \1915 39 steps iv. 90 That’s the end of my Scotch motor tour.
motor v. \1932 Gap in Curtain i. 31 Mayot had motored to Cirencester to meet a friend.
mule (sense 5a) \1929 Courts of morning i. 37 Country mule-carts struggled towards the market-place.
munitionment \1929 Courts of morning i. 133 Science has now created a norm of weapon and munitionment, which is substantially the same for all armies.
mushroom (sense 3d) \1916 Greenmantle xxi. 291 There was the dull shock of an explosion and a mushroom of red earth.
nachtmaal (Afrikans for Holy Communion) \1916 Greenmantle iii. 35 It was as slow as a vrouw coming from nachtmaal.
near (sense 17b) \1902 Watcher by Threshold 142 The hope was near fulfilment.
nervous (sense 9) \1936 Island of sheep i. vi. 110 He started at every noise. He was the very model of a nervous wreck.
net (sense 4c. Buchan seems to have been first to apply the word to spies.) \1919 Mr. Standfast iii. 63 By the middle of 1915 most enemy spies … had been gathered in. But there remained loose ends, and … somebody was very busy combining these ends into a net.
Newmarket \1933 Prince of captivity ii. iv. 248 She had been gardening … and wore Newmarket boots.
news (sense 6c) \1933 Prince of captivity iii. ii. 291 A statement to an international news agency.
newspaper \1933 Prince of captivity i. iv. 114 Falconet was … a newspaper proprietor on a large scale.
nil admirari \1935 House of Four Winds vi. 139 Mr. Glynde’s nil admirari countenance … registered surprise.
No. \1924 Three hostages xvii. 242 It was eventually arranged that the district-visitor should call at No. 4 the following afternoon.
nose (sense 6a) \1935 House of Four Winds i. 42, I should like to put my nose inside Evallonia just to say I’d been there.
null (sense b: meaningless letters introduced into a cipher message. Buchan was the first recorded usage of the term in this sense.) \1915 39 steps iii. 72 It was a numerical cypher, and by an elaborate system of experiments I had pretty well discovered what were the nulls and stops.
O (sense 6, abbreviations.) \1936 Island of sheep vi. 112 He wore white linen breeches, a smartly cut flannel coat, and an O.E. tie.
off (sense 2) \1930 Castle Gay iv. 72 He has probably offed it abroad.old man (sense 1e) \1936 Island of sheep vi. 118 Desperadoes who had crushed their lives were in-spanned in Castor’s sense … .like the servants of the Old Man of the Mountain in the Crusades.
Olympic \1936 Island of sheep iv. 60 It was not the Peter that you knew in the War, but Peter ten years younger, with no grey in his beard, and as trim and light and hard as an Olympic athlete.
opinion (sense 4) \1924 Three hostages xvi. 237 There’s no cause to worry about Peter John … . But if you want another opinion, why not get it? \Ibid. 238, I think a second opinion would please Dr. Greenslade, for he too looked rather anxious.
oraculate \1919 Mr. Standfast i. i. 32 He boomed and oraculated and the Misses Wymondham prattled. \1930 ---- Castle Gay viii. 134 The Professor oraculated on letters, with an elephantine deference to his hearers’ opinions.
otter (sense 7) \1936 Island of sheep xiii. 247 Look at the trawl. It’s absurd. It has no otter-boards … . There’s something wrong with this ship.
overhand \1931 Blanket of Dark xiv. 260 Peter’s long arms in an overhand stroke devoured the waters.
overhang \1924 Three hostages xxi. 306 The corrie face … seemed nothing but slabs and rotten rocks, while the few chimneys had ugly overhangs.
overreach \1932 Gap in Curtain iv. 193 Verona’s mare got an overreach in a bog.
overspill \1940 Memory hold the door vi. 145 Emigration undertaken as a reasoned policy … and not as a mere overspill of population.
pacificist \1919 Mr. Standfast i. 21 It was bad enough for anyone to have to pose as a pacificist, but for me, as strong as a bull and as sunburnt as a gipsy and not looking my forty years, it was a black disgrace. \Ibid. 35 You were bidden … turn yourself from a successful general into a pacificist South African engineer.
panel (sense 21) \1924 Three hostages i. 12 He would pay three visits a day to a panel patient, which shows the kind of fellow he was.
parapet \1916 Greenmantle xx. 266 A crump took the parapet of the trench.
parrot-house \1929 Courts of morning i. 35 Yanqui youth … is chronically alcoholic and amorous, and its manners are a brilliant copy of the parrot-house.
pass (sense 46a) \1924 Three hostages vi. 96, I will visit it as a man … to see about the meter … . Macgillivray will pass the word for me.
pas si bête \1924 Three hostages xii. 179 ‘What about the weather?’ I asked anxiously. ‘Pas si bête,’ he said, sniffing. ‘The wind is pretty sure to go down.’
passport (sense 6. Buchan is first with the collocation passport photograph.) \1935 House of Four Winds iii. 84 The passport photograph isn’t unlike him.
passportless \1919 Mr. Standfast v. 96 It seemed to me that, in spite of being passportless, I might be able somehow to make my way.
patience (sense 6) \1916 Greenmantle ii. 24 From his pocket he had taken a pack of Patience cards and had begun to play the game called the Double Napoleon.
perpend \1930 Castle Gay xi. 172 He retired to the inn … to write out his notes and perpend the situation.
petit (sene 5) \1936 Island of sheep xii. 228 The fashion of the household was for a skimpy petit déjeuner and then an elaborate midday meal.
petrol (sense 3b) \1932 Gap in Curtain ii. 96 They had to make a forced landing … on the skirts of Ruwenzori, where they found that something had gone wrong with the petrol pump and that some of the propeller and cylinder bolts had worked loose. \Ibid. iv. 210 We want to get past the garages and petrol pumps and county council cottages to the ancient rustic England. \1916 Greenmantle xvi. 217, I got out the petrol tins and spare tyres and cached them among some rocks on the hillside.
pharmakos \1926 Dancing Floor ii. 42 You have your purgation herbs like buckthorn and agnus castus, and you have your pharmakos, your scapegoat, who carries away all impurities.
pick (sense 15) \1929 Courts of morning iii. ii. 331 Looks as if you folk had been picking on my poor little country.
piedmont \1929 Courts of morning ii. xi. 257 A rambling country-house high up in the South Carolina piedmont, with the blue, forested hills behind.
pig v. \1930 Castle Gay ix. 145 They would have to pig it in a moorland inn.
piker (timid gambler) \1929 Courts of morning i. xii. 138, I don’t say there mayn’t be some pikers at Headquarters.
pile n. 3 (sense 3h) \1915 39 steps i. 10, I had got my pile---not one of the big ones, but good enough for me.
pipe (sense 10a) \1902 Buchan Watcher by the Threshold 7. I lit a pipe to cheer me.
pitch (sense 15h) \1916 Greenmantle i. 5 My heart was beginning to thump uncomfortably. Sir Walter was not the man to pitch a case too high.
plainly (sense 6) \1902 Buchan Watcher by the Threshold 289. I suppose he lives very plainly.
plane-tree \1902 Buchan Watcher by the Threshold 157. Some large plane-trees grew near the house.
plank (sense 7) \1933 Prince of captivity ii. iv. 247 He crossed the stream by a plank bridge.
plant (sense 6a) \1930 Castle Gay xii. 194 He made his way round to the back regions, which had once been stables and coach-houses, and housed now the electric plant and a repairing shop for cars.
plug (sense 2m) \1922 Bk. Escapes viii. 151 They had flown all the way to Egypt without cleaning their plugs!
pockety \1929 Courts of morning ii. 257 Days with a bobbery pack of hounds in difficult pockety country. \1932 ---- Gap in Curtain iv. 190 The river valley was pockety and swampy.
poet (sense 1c) \1932 Sir W. Scott iv. 79 Dryden was not a poet’s poet, any more than his editor.
police (sense 6) \1933 Prince of captivity iii. i. 277 That cheerful party broke up in confusion … . Yes, a police raid.
polis \1919 Mr. Standfast iv. 84 Ye’ll get a good turn-out at your meeting … but they’re sayin’ that the polis will interfere. \1928 Runagates Club ii. 73 The pollisman … says they’re looking for a man that personated an inmate.
porridge (sense 5) \1936 Island of sheep ii. 25 Archie Roylance … looked up sympathetically from his porridge bowl.
possible (sense 2d. Buchan has the first citation for the meaning of ‘suspect’.) \1915 39 steps vii. 180 You’re in no danger from the law of this land … .they have dropped you from the list of possibles.
post office (sense 2b) \1919 Mr. Standfast vii. 148, I had got precisely what Blenkiron wanted, a post office for the enemy … . I could see the juiciest lies passing that way to the Grosses Hauptquartier.
potted \1922 Huntingtower iv. 69 There was new milk … and most of the dainties which had appeared at tea, supplemented by a noble dish of shimmering ‘potted-head’.
pouch (sense 3c) \1928 Runagates Club iv. 134 There were dark pouches under his eyes.
powder (sense 5b) \1933 Prince of captivity ii. ii. 196 Birkpool is … becoming a powder magazine.
powerhouse (sense 2) \1916 (title) The Power House …
Powhatan \1915 Salute to adventurers xxiv. 334 A voice … spoke the Powhatan language, which I knew. \Ibid. xxvi. 355, I found some Indians … and told one who spoke Powhatan the issue of the fight.
prayer-meeting \1928 Runagates Club xi. 298 It was the prayer-meeting, remember, which brought America into the War.
prehistoric \1924 Three hostages vii. 105, I obediently sampled an old hock, an older port, and a most pre-historic brandy.
prelude v. \1915 Nelson’s Hist. WarII. ix. 34 Von Kluck preluded it [sc. an enveloping movement] by a heavy bombardment of Binche and Bray.
press officer \1919 Mr. Standfast xx. 366, I was about to make a rush for … one of the Press officers, who would … be in the way of knowing things.
prickly (sense 2) \1902 Watcher by Threshold, 81.The skin grows hot and prickly.
princess (sense 5b. Buchan is first with the word as a form of address.) \1924 Three hostages xviii. 254, I have waked you from sleep, my princess. Therefore so far it is good.
prison (sense 3d) \1933 Prince of captivity ii. i. 178 You would spend some weeks in a prison hospital till they patched you up.
private (sense 4e) \1924 Three hostages xvi. 235 This must be a private telephone … of which only his special friends knew the number.
prosit \1916 Greenmantle iii. 40 He filled us two long tankards of very good Munich beer. ‘Prosit,’ he said, raising his glass.
provenance (sense b. Buchan is first to use the word in association with art or manuscripts.) \1926 Dancing Floor i. vi. 111 If I knew the provenance of the manuscript, I might be able to understand it better.
pseudo (sense 1b) \1936 Island of sheep vii. 125 The house was … a pseudo-Georgian edifice of red brick with stone facings.
psychic \1902 Buchan Watcher by the Threshold 131. Among women his psychic balance was so oddly upset that he grew nervous and returned unhappy.
psychical \1912 Moon Endureth iv. 135 The Presences might be … spirits … behaving as psychical researchers think they do.
public \1928 Runagates Club x. 273 He had been returned to Parliament … but he wasn’t much in the public eye. \1924 Three hostages vi. 85, I went into a public telephone-booth.
public-school \1936 Island of sheep i. ii. 21 The kind of son I had hoped for … was … the kind of public-school product you read about. \Ibid. 22 Peter John … didn’t care a rush for the public-school spirit.
pug n. 5 \1924 Three hostages v. 74 The man had been in the ring, and not so very long ago. I wondered at Medina’s choice, for a pug is not the kind of servant I would choose myself.
pukka \1919 Mr. Standfast i. v. 113 My boy’s at home, convalescing, and if he says you’re pukka, I’ll ask your pardon.
pull \1933 Prince of captivity iii. ii. 282 The driver stopped to examine his engine. ‘She pulls badly, mein Herr,’ he said.
punctum (sense 6) \1932 Sir W. Scott xiii. 342 This punctum indifferens is the peaceful anchorage of good sense from which we are able to watch with a balanced mind the storm outside.
pure (sense 3b) \1902 Watcher by Threshold 145. A lot of pure nonsense.
Pytchley \1919 Mr. Standfast xiv. 257 He used to hunt with the Pytchley.
quick \1928 Runagates Club viii. 220 At a quick-luncheon counter he got into talk with a man.
racket (sense 3b) \1916 Greenmantle i. 4, I thrive on the racket and eat and sleep like a schoolboy.
rag n. 3 \1930 Castle Gay iv. 60, I do not wish to have my name associated with an undergraduate---‘rag’, I think is the word.
raggle-taggle \1923 Midwinter i. 34 My companions are the moor-men and … the raggle-taggle gypsies.
raid (sense 2c) \1924 Three hostages xv. 215 It would never do for him to be caught in a raid on a dance-club.
rail (sense 4b) \1916 Greenmantle i. 5 He told me just how and why and when Turkey had left the rails.
railway \1915 39 steps vii. 177, I never ate a meal with greater relish, for I had had nothing all day but railway sandwiches. \1919 Mr. Standfast ix. 183, I … emerged in the uniform of a British private … . I had a railway warrant made out in my name for London.
ranger v. 1 \1924 Three hostages xiii. 182, I heard somewhere you were goin’ to be married … . What do you call it---ranger yourself?
rariora \1932 Gap in Curtain iv. 189 There was a fine set of Donne, two of the Shakespeare folios, … besides a quantity of devotional and political rariora.
rasta \1929 Courts of morning 25 One of his South American colleagues had taken him to dine at a restaurant much in vogue among the rastas.
rastaquouère \1924 Three hostages xiii. 199 The usual rastaqouère crowd of men and women drinking liqueurs and champagne. \1940 Memory hold the door vi. 128 There was a vulgar display of wealth, and a rastaquouère craze for luxury.
rather (sense 7) \1933 Prince of captivity ii. i. 153 ‘You’ve heard Kenneth speak of him.’ ‘Rather. I want to meet him.’
razor \1936 Island of sheep xii. 235 In the Norlands life had always been on a razor’s edge.
red (sense 9b) \1929 Courts of morning i. 129 The Scotsman had become their special intimate … . Judson, who seemed to have known him before, called him Red Geordie.
red (sense 16f) \1916 Greenmantle iv. 52 You see that map … . South Africa is coloured green. Not red for the English, or yellow for the Germans.
reebok \1910 Prester John xiv. 230 There were droves of smaller game---rhebok and springbok and duikers.
refugee (sense 3b) \1902 in J. Adam Smith & his World (1979) 38/2 Milner has turned over to me … the Boer refugee camps.
relief \1933 Prince of captivity i. iii. 85 Now he has gone and lost himself and … they’re talking of a relief party.
restoration (sense 6) \1936 Island of sheep viii. 141 Nothing more modern than the Restoration wing built by Bruce of Kinross.
return (sense 19) \1915 39 steps i. 18 This is the return match for the pogroms. The Jew is everywhere.
rickle \1922 Huntingtower iii. 57 Huntingtower was the auld rickle o’ stanes at the sea-end.
ridge (sense 8) \1902 No-Man’s-Land i. 5 A sort of plateau, benty and rock-strewn, running ridge-wise above a chain of little peaty lochs.
right (sense 13c) \1915 39 steps iv. 81 It was no question of preventing a war. That was coming, as sure as Christmas … . Karolides was going to be the occasion. He was booked all right, and was to hand in his checks on June 14th.
ring (sense 19) \1910 Prester John viii. 149 In such a man one would have looked for a ring-kop, but instead he had a mass of hair … long and curled like some popular musician.
ringer n. 2 (sense 4) \1916 Greenmantle xiii. 174 Now you’re in these pretty clothes you’re the dead ringer of the brightest kind of American engineer.
Robin Hood \1931 Blanket of Dark v. 96 This Catti … robbed especially rich men … but spared the Church and the poor---a shabby Robin Hood.
rondavel \1910 Prester John iii. 53 There were some twenty native huts, higher up the slope, which the Dutch call rondavels.
rood (sense 6) \1931 Blanket of Dark 86 Old John Naps was at the Rood Fair on Barton Heath.
rough (sense 21a) \1919 Mr. Standfast xii. 217 He would relish the rough-tonguing of non-coms.
rough neck \1929 Courts of morning i. iii. 51 The water-front was a perfect rat-hole for every criminal in the Pacific---every brand of rough-neck and dope-smuggler and crook.
rug (sense 3a) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 287. The fire-lit hall, with its rugs and little tables.
run (sense 25d) \1936 Island of sheep vi. 117 He’s back now, for I heard his bath running.
ruse de guerre \1922 Huntingtower v. 84 ‘It was an abominable lie.’ … ‘Not at all. It was a necessary and proper ruse de guerre.’
Sabaean \1910 Prester John xi. 183 It must have been some old sacred language---Phoenician, Sabæan, I know not what---which had survived in the rite.
saeter \1940 Memory hold the door viii. 191, I do not mean the Swiss alp or the Norwegian saeter pasture, for these are on too large a scale.
salmon (sense 4c) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 6. I had breakfasted..on eggs and salmon-steaks.
sand (sense 7b, firmness of purpose) \1933 Prince of captivity iii. i. 264 A plain face with nothing showy about it, but all the horse-sense and sand in the world.
sausage (sense 2c) \1916 Battle of Somme 20 Captive balloons, the so-called ‘sausages’, glittered in the sunlight.
saw (sense 3d) \1933 Prince of captivity iii. i. 264 He sees the next job and sits down to it---stays still and saws wood, as Lincoln said.
say (sense 2b) \1932
Sir W. Scott
xii. 333 Venice, Tirol, Munich, Heidelberg said nothing to him.school (sense 16a) \1940 Memory hold the door 194 Prester John … has since become a school-reader in many languages.
schwärmerisch \1933 Prince of captivity iv. i. 321 The type of American whose mind had two compartments, realistic business and schwärmerisch dreams.
scoop (sense 5a) \1916 Greenmantle xxii. 297 We have won any way; and if Peter has had a slice of luck, we’ve scooped the pool.
Scots \1902 Buchan Watcher by the Threshold 125. He thought Scots games inferior to southern sports. \ Ibid. 281. She speaks broad Scots.
scrawled \1910 Prester John xxi. 351 There … was the body of Henriques, lying scrawled on the sand.
scrip n. 3 \1922 Huntingtower i. 21 The Compleat Angler seemed to fit his mood … . Decidedly it was the right scrip for his pilgrimage.
sculp n. 2 \1921 Path of King xii. 242 Maybe the Indians have got his sculp.
sculp v. 2 \1921 Path of King xii. 243 The Shawnees cotched me and Jim … . They’d ha’ sculped us if it hadn’t been for Jim.
scunner (sense 1, dislike) \1927 Witch Wood i. 21 You’ll give our young brother a scunner of the place.
sea (sense 18f) \1902 Buchan Watcher by the Threshold 118. A sea-wood of alders slipping from the hill's skirts to the water's edge.
sealchie \1933 Prince of captivity 28 He has heard the silkies singing at dawn on farther islets than St. Kilda.
sealing \1933 Prince of captivity i. iii. 91 A sealing sloop had crawled up the coast as soon as spring opened the shore waters.
seawards \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 114. He turned eagerly seawards.
seedy (sense 2b) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 169. A man who is a bit seedy.
serac \1933 Prince of captivity i. iii. 92 They came on ice-fields … and mountainous seracs which would have puzzled an Alpine climber.
Sesotho \1916 Greenmantle ix. 120, I spoke rapidly in Sesutu, for I was afraid the captain might know Dutch.
sham (sense 2a) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 312. The hollow shams of life with their mincing conventions had departed.
shamble v. 2 \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 83. He turned and shambled down the passage.
shekel \1915 39 steps i. 18 The capitalists would rake in the shekels, and make fortunes by buying up wreckage.
shipwreck v. \1932 Gap in Curtain iii. 153 His only success was with me, for I … could talk to him about … the inaccuracies of the Greville Memoirs. But the real rock on which the thing shipwrecked was Protection.
short (sense 26a) \1921 Path of King xii. 246 He held that the country had grown up and couldn’t be kept much longer in short clothes.
short-circuit \1924 Three hostages iii. 48 If you had happened to look at that rag you might have short-circuited your inquiry.
shroud (sense 5) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 288. The hills, shrouded in grey mist.
shutter n. (sense 2h) \1910 Prester John i. 11 An evil-smelling old tin lantern with a shutter.
shutter v. \1910 Prester John i. 15 Tam who had seized and shuttered his lantern, coming last.
sick (sense 2c) \1915 39 steps vii. 161, I had a crushing headache, and felt as sick as a cat.
sicken (sense 5a) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 90. His fetid breath sickened me.
siege (sense 1e) \1922 Huntingtower xiii. 256 There in a coign of the old battlements he would prove an ugly customer to the pursuit. Only one at a time could reach that siege perilous.
silk (sense 10) \1913 Divus Johnson in Runagates Club (1928) vi. 152 Russian geographers were interesting themselves in the line of the old silk route to Cathay.
Sioux \1915 Salute to adventurers ix. 141 He said something in Sioux to one of the warriors.
skelm \1916 Greenmantle iii. 35, I got into German territory all right, and then a skellum of an officer came along, and commandeered all my mules.
Skoda \1933 Prince of captivity i. 78 Skoda mountain howitzers which had once been destined for the Hedjaz.
snell (Buchan’s is the only citation for the derived noun form.) \1915 Salute to adventurers i. 15 That bold girl singing a martial ballad to the storm and taking pleasure in the snellness of the air.
snug (sense 2b) \1934 Free Fishers xiii. 211 Jem hung up his hat and ever since has been as snug as a flea in a blanket.
social service (sense 2. Buchan is first with this sense.) \1933 Prince of captivity ii. iii. 230 He is not prepared to go back on our social services … . All parties go on sluicing out … new benefits from the public funds.
soft (sense 31) \1933 Prince of captivity iii. ii. 287 The soft-soled shoes of the pursuit did not slip.
solitary (sense 3c) \1916 Greenmantle v. 62 There was nothing the Boche liked so much as an excuse for sending a poor devil to ‘solitary’.
sordid (sense 5c) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 189 Frankly, I hate the sordid and unpleasant.
soup (sense 2b) \1915 39 steps ii. 37, I was in the soup---that was pretty clear.
south \1924 Three hostages iii. 50 He was M.P. for a South London division.
sown (sense 2) \1940 Memory hold the door i. 22 We had for our playground both the desert and the sown.
sparklet (sense 3) \1929 Courts of morning ii. xii. 271 A mess-servant brought him a long drink of lime-juice and sparklets.
sphagnum (sense 3) \1941 Sick Heart River ii. 124 A bottomless half-frozen sphagnum swamp … heaved under his tread.
sport (sense 10b) \1933 Prince of captivity iv. i. 325 The aeroplane … had landed in the sports ground of the factory.
sport (sense 10c) \1930 Castle Gay xii. 191 At a small draper’s … a jacket of rough tweed was purchased---what is known in the trade as a ‘sports’ line.
spy (sense 5) \1915 39 steps vii. 184 It is ordinary spy work.
stage (sense 11a) \1940 Memory hold the door ii. 39, I have used the word politics, but at this stage I was no politician, being interested only to a small degree in theories, and not at all in parties.
stage-manage \1924 Three hostages viii. 118 ‘Now wake.’ I was puzzled to know how to stage-manage that wakening.
Stanhope (sense 4) \1896 in W. Buchan John Buchan (1982) iv. 81 Get the Newdigate. Get the Stanhope.
stark (sense 6) \1898 John Burnet of Barns iii. vii. 255 Slowly … they began to disrobe themselves … till they stood before me … as stark as the day they were born.
start v. (sense 12d) \1925 John Macnab vii. 144 In this country, once you start in on politics you’re fixed in a class and members of a hierarchy.
stay v. 1 (sense 6b) \1924 Three hostages vii. 102 He’s able enough; but he won’t stay put, and that makes him pretty well useless.
steel n. 1 (sense 15a) \1921 Path of King i. 9 The world put on a new dress, all steel-blue and misty green … . Spring had fairly come.
stiff (sense 8d) \1916 Hist. War IX. lxx. 161 To withdraw through that area meant a stiff holding battle around Brest.
stiff (sense 11a) \1934 Free Fishers xviii. 297 Old Utterson is as stiff as a poker, and would keep us arguing till midnight.
stiffening (sense 2b) \1915 Hist. War VII. lix. 151 Only the German stiffening kept them the Austrians to their work.
stifle (sense 4a) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 250. Stifling the voice of conscience.
stocking foot (sense b) \1915 Nelson’s Hist. War V. xl. 153 For them i.e. the Treasury bonds the peasant and the small tradesman brought out his store of gold from the stocking-foot.
stomach (sense 5b) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 186. I had no stomach for more mysteries.
stookie (sense 2) \1934 Free Fishers xix. 314 Give her your arm … and don’t stand glowering like a stookie.
stop (sense 15e) \1929 Courts of morning i. xiii. 152 If I hadn’t thought of that head-crashing dodge, I think I might have stopped a bullet.
storm-troops \1933 Prince of captivity iii. i. 274 They were violent German nationalists … true storm-troops, ready for any forlorn hope and prepared to use any means however devilish.
strain (sense 15b) \1915 Nelson’s Hist. War III. xxi. 98 The river Oder in many places strains in mazy channels and backwaters among isles matted with dwarf willows and alders.
straitness \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 269. He felt the torture of his collar and the straitness of his clothes.
strap v. (sense 1e) \1919 Mr. Standfast i. ix. 173 He signalled to me to strap myself in … and he proceeded to practise ‘stunts’---the loop, the spinning nose-dive, and others.
street (sense 4b) \1919 Mr. Standfast x. 187 A hundred yards away a bomb fell on a street island.
strip v. 1 (sense 3b) \1936 Island of sheep i. vii. 130 They had only to get hold of Haraldsen … to strip him bit by bit of his possessions.
stroke (sense 12b) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 314. He found deep water, and in two strokes was in the grip of the tide.
struggle (sense 5) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 313. A moon was beginning to struggle through the windy clouds.
student (sense 5b) \1916 Power-House v. 134 It had something to do with the Slav States of Austria and an Italian Students’ Union, and it threatened … to be dangerous.
Sunday (sense 3) \1928 Runagates Club xii. 319 His clothes … were workman-like, and looked as if they belonged to him---no more the uneasy knickerbockers of the Sunday golfer.
Sunday-school (sense 1b) \1922 Huntingtower x. 198 Wee Jaikie went to a Socialist Sunday School last winter.
sunk (sense 4b) \1922 Huntingtower v. 93 A path which wound down to the sunk garden.
supple v. (sense 2a) \1915 Hist. War iii. 90 Men lame from hard new boots not yet suppled by use.
surcease \1916 Hist. War xciii. XIII. 53 It was carried on in all weathers … with no surcease of keenness.
suspicion v. \1919 Mr. Standfast xxi. 386 If the Boche once suspicions how little he’s got before him the game’s up.
Susquehannock \1915 Salute to adventurers v. 79, I was with Bacon in ‘76, in the fray with the Susquehannocks. I speak the Indian tongues.
Swazi \1910 Prester John xi. 193 There were tall Zulus and Swazis with ringkops and feather head-dresses.
sweetie (sense 1b) \1928 Runagates Club ii. 85 Some biscuits which I bought at a sweetie shop.
swinging ppl. a. (sense 3a) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 76, I heard a long swinging step outside.
syne (sense 1) 1902 Watcher by the Threshold 247. Syne he rebuked her coldness.
Syracusan \1916 Hist. War lxxix, XI, 36 The Syracusan expedition was the death-blow of the Athenian Empire.
tab n. (sense 2d) \1916 Greenmantle i. 2 ‘Try my tailor,’ said Sandy. ‘He’s got a very nice taste in red tabs.’
tag (sense 9b) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 175. Stories from Procopius and tags of Roman law.
Tag \1924 Three hostages ix. 125 We’ll fix the 10th of June for Der Tag … The round-up of all must be simultaneous.
takhaar \1910 Prester John ii. 44 The place … gives the ordinary man the jumps … . It may be the natives, or it may be the taakhaars, or it may be something else.
Tambouki \1910 Prester John xiv. 230, I was … into a piece of parkland with long, waving tambuki grass.
tar-brush (sense b) \1928 Runagates Club i. 18 The Du Preez family had lived … close up to the Kaffir borders, and somewhere had got a dash of the tar-brush.
tattie (sense 2) \1922 Huntingtower xii. 240 There’s … me … no more use than a tattie-bogle.
taxi (sense 4) \1924 Three hostages vi. 84 It is an outlandish place to get to, but most taxi-drivers know it.
tear v. (sense 1a) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 268. The boy had torn his clothes.
tele- \1932 Gap in Curtain i. 44 The instinct which had its seat in this cell specialised in time-perception … . I had been reading lately about telegnosis.
telephone (sense 3. Buchan is first with the collocation telephone book.)\1915 39 steps viii. 201, I picked up the telephone book and looked up the number of his house.
tenpence \1922 Huntingtower vii. 142 There’s a certain old lady, an aunt of Mr. Quentin and his sisters, who has always been about tenpence in the shilling.
thereaways \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 73. What's taking ye thereaways?
Thermopylae \1929 Courts of morning iii. iii. 335 I’m going to try the Themopylae stunt … . Our Thermopylae is going to be a more cunning affair than the old one.
thick (sense 5a) \1919 Mr. Standfast xii. 218, I see you’re some kind of general. They’re pretty thick on the ground here.
thick (sense 7) \1936 Island of sheep ii. 35 Out of the marshes a fog crept which the gunners call a ‘thick’.
thorn (sense 2) \1929 Courts of morning ii. iii. 187 You’ve given me a thorn to lie on, just when I was feeling comfortable.
thrawnly \1899 Grey Weather 250 ‘What bird are ye?’ he asked thrawnly.
thrill (sense 5c) \1940 Memory hold the door ii. 42 Stevenson … thrilled as we did to those antecedents---the lights and glooms of Scottish history.
thrive (sense 1a) \1940 Memory hold the door iii. 84, I throve on a diet of oatmeal, mutton and strong tea.
tide (sense 16) \1898 in To Day 5 Nov. 7/2 The river the noo is no three feet deep a’ ower, wi’ sands and the shift o’ the tide-bar.
top (sense 3d) \1933 Prince of captivity ii. i. 154 Life’s a perpetual affair of going over the top.
tourmente \1924 Three hostages xii. 177, I could see that it was blowing hard, for my glass showed me little tourmentes of snow.
tow n. 1 (sense 4c) \1921 Path of King xiii. 259 He wore an old skin shirt and a pair of tow-linen pants.
trait d’union (meaning hyphen) \1912 Moon Endureth iv. 127 He had established no trait d’union between the intellect … and the senses.
trap (sense 7) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 194. A trap shall be sent for you after dinner.
trench (sense 10) \1933 Prince of captivity ii. i. 132 He wore a tattered trench waterproof and … ancient trench-boots. \1933 Prince of captivity i. iii. 85 Blown-up, buried, dysentery, trench-fever, and most varieties of wounds.
tripe (sense 4) \1935 House of Four Winds iv. 98 If your tripe-hounds had been worth their keep they would have seen me meet him.
Triplicist \1923 Nations of To-day: Italy 172 It was able to give a decidedly ‘Triplicist’ aspect to the enterprise.
true (sense 4d) \1910 Prester John x. 177 We followed a narrow shelf on its left side (or ‘true right’, as mountaineers would call it). \1929 ---- Courts of morning iii. iv. 344 Six men were perched high up among the rocks on the right side (what mountaineers would call the ‘true left’) of the couloir.
tuck v. (sense 8) \1936 Island of sheep v. 99 My first business must be to tuck him away comfortably somewhere out of the road.
tummy (sense 3) \1924 Three hostages xvi. 238 He really has had a bad tummy pain.
Tuscaroras \1915 Salute to adventurers ix. 137 All this land … is Sioux country … . But cheek by jowl is a long strip held by the Tuscaroras.
twelfth (sense 4) \1928 Runagates Club vii. 195, I saw you play at Lord’s. I was twelfth man for Harrow that year.
twine (sense 7) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 267. The little brown river … twined to the sea.
Ulysses \1915 Salute to adventurers iv. 68, I had been dreaming of foreign parts … and here on a Glasgow stairhead I had found Ulysses himself.
umquhile \1934 Free Fishers ii. 40 What do you think of your umquhile pupil, Professor?
un- prefix (Buchan has the only citation for the word unpacifist.) \1916 Greenmantle iii. 30 He got a brussels-sprout in the eye, at which … he swore in a very unpacifist style.
up adv. 2 \1926 Dancing Floor i. i. 11 It’s old Milburne. He’s up at Magdalen with me.
upper (sense 4a, pupil at upper school) \1929 Courts of morning ii. viii. 379 The Eton Beagles in the fields beyond Slough, and himself and Lariarty, both newly become uppers, struggling desperately to keep up with the field.
use (sense 11b) \1921 Path of King xiv. 276 It’s curious that a man who don’t use tobacco or whisky should be such mighty good company.
veld (sense 2b) \1910 Prester John xiv. 232 The veld-craft I had mastered had taught me a few things.
verboten \1916 Greenmantle v. 63, I got very bored, for I had nothing to read and my pipe was verboten.
Versailles (sense 2) \1928 Runagates Club x. 273 The soldiers … would have made a cleaner and fairer job of it than the kind of circus that appeared at Versailles.
veto (sense 1b) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 182. I proposed shooting, which he promptly vetoed.
vicious \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 81 The weather seemed more vicious than ever.
village \1915 Salute to adventurers i. 9 She was presently driven out of the place by … the baillie, and the village dogs.
vin blanc \1919 Mr. Standfast viii. 162 A pint and a dram for me. This is better than vongblong and vongrooge … in those estamints.
vorslag \1910 Prester John iii. 59 He roared with laughter at my way of tying a voorslag.
voraciously \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 73, I was voraciously hungry.
wait \1931 Blanket of Dark xvi. 307 Be still and wait on God.
wait \1915 39 steps vi. 135 He … raised his placid eyebrows and waited on me to speak.
Wandervogel \1935 House of Four Winds ii. 49 They were remarkable young men … not in the least like the Wandervögel whom he had met on many German roads, comfortable sunburnt folk out for a holiday.
wanting \1924 Three hostages vi. 85 Had something given in my brain last night … so that now I was what people call ‘wanting’?
wastrel \1931 Blanket of Dark 102 It was hard to believe that this was a gathering of the kings of wastreldom.
watch (sense 11a) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 81. I had not gone twenty yards..ere I knew I was watched.
water \1915 Nelson’s Hist. WarIII. xxi. 89 Thereupon von Hindenburg attempted to ‘prepare’ a passage by a great bombardment---high angle shell fire which should ‘water’ the enemy’s position. \Ibid. VII. lii. 106 The Germans were closing in on both sides and ‘watering’ the whole hinterland with their fire.
waterman (sense 8) \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 126. A canvas skiff which it took good watermanship to sit.
waver \1915 Hist. War IV. xxvi. 75 The line wavered and broke.
weak \1926 Dancing Floor i. ii. 54 We were as weak as kittens, but … extraordinarily happy.
wear \1936 Island of sheep iii. 44 When I came across him in Persia … he was rather the worse for wear.
wear \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 289 He wears the same clothes for years.
well-padded \1933 Prince of captivity ii. ii. 190 What has become of the nice, easy-going, well-padded people with soft voices and wide smiles.
well-timed \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 76 The question was well-timed.
West \1916 Nelson’s Hist. WarXIII. 121 A strong offensive in the West might induce the Allies to make a premature counter-attack.
westward \1915 Nelson’s Hist. War V. 126 The bulk of the Russian army went westwards to reinforce the van.
whinstone \1910 Prester John v. I haven't your whinstone nerve.
white \1910 Prester John xxii. 353 The amnesty came … and white Africa drew breath again.
whitening \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 88. My whitening face must have told them a tale.
wild (sense 16) \1925 John Macnab xiii. 268 An expert from Kew … had made a wonderful wild garden.
wise v. 2 \1919 Mr. Standfast iii. 70 You’ve got to wise up about Gresson with the whole forces of the British State arrayed officially against you.
witch-hunt \1927 Witch Wood xvi. 272 David had … seen a witch hunt … as a boy---and then there had been a furious and noisy crowd.
wood \1903 Afr. Colony 114 A delight in the Wood Bush is apt to spoil a man for other scenery.
woodcock \1902 Watcher by the Threshold 152. The woodcock are notoriously late.
work (sense 4b) \1902 Watcher by Threshold 127. It was hard work rowing, for the wind was against him.
world (sense 25b) \1929 Courts of morning 14 America … .could not take a big hand in world affairs … . She had too much to do at home.
wrath (sense 4a) \1936 Island of sheep xii. 224 The winds … in the Norlands can blow like the wrath of God.
yatter v. \1919 Mr. Standfast i. vi. 122 No company but a wheen ignorant Hielanders that yatter Gawlic.
yatter n. \1898 John Burnet of Barns ii. ix. 188 The shrill yatter of the fishwives.
Zimbabwe \1929 Courts of morning ii. 288 The subsidiary towers … recalled in their shape pictures she had seen of the Rhodesian Zimbabwes.