faird

From Middle English ferd.

faird (plural fairds)

1. (chiefly Scotland, obsolete) Force of movement, impetus, rush; hence, a violent onset.
   • [a. 1522, Virgil; Gawin Douglas [i.e., Gavin Douglas], transl., chapter XI, in [George Dundas], editor, The Æneid of Virgil: Translated into Scottish Verse (Bannatyne Club, Publications; 64, no. 1), volume I, Edinburgh: T. Constable, printer, published 1839, OCLC 1038768057, lines 14–17, page 355:

     And ſone as he perſavys quhar that went / Forganyſt him, cumand throu greſy ſward, / Hys derreſt ſon Ene with hasty fard, / Baith his handys joyfull furthſtracht he than; […]]

   • 1609, Archbishop of St. Andrews [George Gledstanes], “CXXVIII. The Archbishop of St Andrews to King James”, in Original Letters Relating to the Ecclesiastical Affairs of Scotland, Chiefly Written by, or Addressed to, His Majesty King James the Sixth after His Accession to the English Throne (Bannatyne Club, Publications; 92, no. 1), volume I (M.DC.III.–M.DC.XIV.), Edinburgh: Printed by John Hughes, […], published 1851, OCLC 5966740, page 216:

     Sire, I remember it is recordit, that in the Pharſalick conflict Cæſar obſerued that Pompeye, be his wntymeous reſtraint of his ſouldiers in the chock of the battel, in ſtaying them of thair force and faird, ſo abbaited their courage, that they wer aine eaſie praye to the Cæſarians, fewar in number, and of leſſe valour; […]

   • 1714, Allan Ramsay, “Elegy on John Cowper, Kirk-treasurer’s Man, anno 1714”, in Poems by Allan Ramsay. In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, […]; and W. Johnston, […], published 1751, OCLC 745206732, lines 43–46, page 16:

     But ne'er a ane of them he ſpar'd, / E'en tho' there was a drunken laird / To draw his ſword, and make a faird / In their defence, […] [Footnote: Make a faird.) A buſtle like a bully.]

• fard
• farde (15th c.)
• ferde (16th c.)

• 'fraid, ARFID, Farid, Frida, fraid, radif

See the etymology at ferd.

• IPA^(key): [fɛərd]

faird (plural fairds)

1. Force of movement, impetus, rush; hence, a violent onset.[1][2]
   • 1681, Samuel Colvil, Mock Poem; or, Whiggs’ Supplication

     None gained by those bloody fairds / But two three Beggers who turn’d Lairds.