The above meaning of tent first appears in the Dictionary of the Scots Language (www.dsl.ac.uk) in an example from John Barbour ‘s Bruce (1375): “To the rerward [the rear guard of an army] na tent tuk he”. 

In modern Scots we are more likely to encounter tent in the phrase to tak tent meaning to pay attention or, more specifically, to beware as in the following from a poem collected byFrancis Child: “He gently tirled the pin*; The lassie taking unto the door she went.” (Grey Cock 1769). In Walter Scott’s Old Mortality he gives a warning about a spirited horse: “Take tent o’ yourself, for my horse is not very chancy.” The poet Violet Jacob in her 1918 collection More Songs warns someone to be on their guard and to “Tak’ tent o’ an Angus lad like me”. 

In that late twentieth century our former Makar Liz Lochhead issue a warning to the then main political leaders which still has an eerie resonance today: “So - watch out Margaret Thatcher, and tak’ tent Neil Kinnock, Or we’ll tak’ the United Kingdom and brekk it like a bannock” (Bagpipe Muzak 1991).

Even in the twenty-first century it’s still a popular phrase here denoting incredulity at the swift passage of time: “Michty its hard tae tak tent o e fac aat here w are heidin wir wye tae the eyn o September already,…” this observation comes from the Inverurie Herald of September 28th 2015.

And finally, a warning to the new president elect from the Aberdeen Press and Journal of 12th November 2016 quoting an old Ballad: “Fit an image tae portray tae the warl an baith shid tak tent o that sang as it tells it aa wi “folks fa and never rise again wha never fell before; There's aye a muckle slippery steen at ilka body’s (everybody’s) door”.”

*A tirling pin was a kind of door knocker 

Scots Word of the Week is written by Pauline Cairns Speitel of Scottish Language Dictionaries