English

Noun

yaud ‎(plural yauds)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) A workhorse; an old or worn-out mare.
   • 1814, Walter Scott, Waverley, Or 'tis Sixty Years Since, 1821, Volume 2, page 98,

     " […] Nay by my faith, if you be so heavy, I will content me with the best of you, and that's the haunch and the nombles, and e'en heave up the rest on the old oak-tree yonder, and come for it with one of the yauds."

   • a. 1835, James Hogg, Seeking the Houdy, 2006, The Collected Works of James Hogg: Contributions to Annuals and Gift-books, page 60,

     " […] Get on, my fine yaud, get on! There is nothing uncanny there."

     Robin coaxed thus, as well to keep up his own spirits, as to encourage his mare; for the truth is, that his hair began to stand on end with affright.

   • 1846, Moses Aaron Richardson, The Local Historian's Table Book, of Remarkable Occurrences, page 106,

     […] he threw it overboard, subjecting it to a spell, that it never should be removed save by the co-operation of "Two twin yauds, two twin oxen, two twin lads, and a chain forged by a smith of kind."

Synonyms

• (old horse): jade

References

1. 1 2 Per Thorson, Anglo-Norse studies: an inquiry into the Scandinavian elements in the modern English dialects, volume 1 (1936), page 52: "Yad sb. Sc Nhb Lakel Yks Lan, also in forms yaad, yaud, yawd, yoad, yod(e).... [jad, o] 'a work-horse, a mare' etc. ON jalda 'made', Sw. dial. jäldä, from Finnish elde (FT p. 319, Torp p. 156 fol.). Eng. jade is not related."
2. 1 2 Saga Book of the Viking Society for Northern Research, page 18: "There is thus no etymological connection between ME. jāde MnE. jade and ME. jald MnE. dial. yaud etc. But the two words have influenced each other mutually, both formally and semantically."
3. ↑ Eric Partridge, Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (ISBN 1134942168, 2006)