> as lemmas

1496 in T. Dickson Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1877) I. 270 To Gilberte Brade,..for spilling of his hous in Striuiling be the Abbot of Vnresoun, x li.

a1572 J. Knox Hist. Reformation Scotl. in Wks. (1846) I. 40 The same Frear maid ane uther sermoun of the Abbote Unreassone, unto whome..he compared the prelattis of that age.

1779 H. Arnot Hist. Edinb. i. ii. 77 The populace amused themselves with other games, which..seem not to have been unconnected with religion. Of these, the chief were the game of Robin Hood, and that of the Abbot of Unreason.

1851 Fraser's Mag. Jan. 126 We'll fetch for this festive season From Downing Street Lords of Misrule, From St. George's our Abbot Unreason.

1932 Observer 25 Dec. 8/2 Add a mask and we are one with all the Lords of Misrule, Abbots of Unreason, and Princes of Purpoole who ever turned the Winter Feast into a scramble of order and office over-turned.

2005 R. Black Gaelic Otherworld 583 More recent approaches..portray the mock abbots of the Scottish burghs—the Abbot of Unreason in Inverness..or the Abbot of Unrest in Peebles—as part of a universal custom of suspending or reversing normality during the midwinter festival.