Oxter
The armpit, plain and simple - and, by easy extension, the act of carrying something tucked under the arm or supporting a person under it: 'she was oxtering him home.'
Etymology
From Old English 'ohsta' (armpit) through Middle English 'oxtere' to Older Scots 'oxter' from c. 1420. The word survived intact into Scots and Northern English and is still current in Ulster speech where standard English 'armpit' has not displaced it. The 'r' on the end is a Middle English development; it is part of the word's English-language identity, not a Scots elaboration.
In a sentence
Corserig naked, with a Child under his Oxter, happing for his lyffe. - Scotland, 1700 (DSL)
A babie in her oxter. - Scotland, 1726 (DSL)
The priest he was oxter'd, the clark he was carried. - Ayrshire, 1793 (DSL)
Historical notes
Oxter is one of the more durable Old English survivals in Ulster Scots. Standard English picked up 'armpit' (literally arm + pit) as a transparent compound and let the older word fall away; Ulster Scots kept the original. Both noun senses remain in current speech, alongside the verb sense ('she was oxtering him home') and a derived form 'oxter-cog' meaning to walk a person along by the arms.
Sources
- Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), entry OXTER n., v. · dictionary
- Macafee, Caroline. Concise Ulster Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1996. · dictionary