Definition
An archaic Scots form of the second-person pronoun "your," appearing in early Scottish legal instruments and records. Found alongside the closely related form ZOW (or Zowe), which represents the nominative form "you." Both terms are encountered in Old Scots legal documents, particularly in contexts involving homage, feudal obligation, and formal address between parties.
These are not terms of legal art in the substantive sense — they carry no independent legal meaning beyond their function as pronouns of address — but their recognition is essential for accurate reading and transcription of period sources.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with Old Scots legal manuscripts, particularly those involving feudal tenure, homage ceremonies, or formal instruments of obligation, will encounter ZOUR and ZOW as standard orthographic forms that reflect the phonology and scribal conventions of the period rather than any distinct legal concept. Misreading these forms — or failing to recognize them as pronouns — can produce significant confusion when parsing the grammatical structure of an instrument and identifying which party owes which obligation to whom.
The cross-reference in Burrill to Skene's De Verborum Significatione (Sir John Skene, 1597) signals that these forms appear in the foundational glossary of Scots legal Latin and Scots vernacular, the primary reference for unpacking Old Scots legal terminology. Skene's work is the expected starting point for any researcher encountering unfamiliar vocabulary in pre-Union Scottish legal documents.
The citation to 1 Howell's State Trials 154 further situates ZOW in a specific evidentiary context, indicating that such archaic forms appeared not only in private instruments but in materials introduced in formal legal proceedings and preserved in the major English state trials compilations. Researchers consulting Howell's State Trials for early modern Scottish or Anglo-Scottish matters should be prepared for this orthographic register.
Because neither ZOUR nor ZOW will appear in modern legal indexes or digests, they present a pure paleographic and philological research problem rather than a doctrinal one. Their significance is confined to document interpretation.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary treats ZOUR and ZOW together in a compact paired entry, correctly identifying both as Old Scots pronoun forms and directing the reader to Skene de Verborum Significatione under the heading Homagium. This placement is instructive: the terms surface in the context of homage — the formal act by which a vassal acknowledged fealty to a lord — where direct address between the parties was a functional part of the ceremony and its written record. Burrill's cross-reference to "See To wit" suggests a broader editorial intent to collect archaic connective and grammatical terms that appear in early instruments without bearing independent substantive meaning.
No other historical legal dictionary in the Law Mind corpus is known to address ZOUR or ZOW. Burrill's entry represents the primary (and likely sole) dictionary-level treatment available to the legal researcher.
Jurisdictional Note
Relevant exclusively to Old Scots legal materials, principally pre-Act of Union (1707) instruments and records. No application in English common law or modern jurisdictions.