Middle English Dictionary Entry
butǒur n.
Entry Info
| Forms | butǒur n. Also bot(o)ur, buttir. |
| Etymology | Cp. OF butoir. |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
(a) A tool for paring horses' hooves, a butteris; (b) ?a pruning knife; (c) a tool for cutting weeds.
Associated quotations
a
- (1352-3) Sacrist R.Ely 2155 : Item in factura ij patellarum..ij boturys pro Tydbritteseye.
- (1370) Invent.Jarrow in Sur.Soc.2953 : In domo fabri, j par de belies..j botour fractum.
- (1382) Invent.Jarrow in Sur.Soc.2971 : Instrumenta fabrialia..j nayltoll magnus, j botour.
- (1423) Will York in Sur.Soc.4581 : Stabulum..pro j botour, ij malleis parvis, cum j clencher de ferro.
b
- ?c1475 *Cath.Angl.(Add 15562)20b : A Buttir, fabri: scalprum, scalpus, scaber, scabrum.
c
- a1425 *Medulla (Stnh A.1.10)56b/b : Runcea: a wede hoke, a butour.
Supplemental Materials (draft)
- (1289) in Salzman Building in Engl.332 : [2 poles of alder for] boturs.
- (1315) in Salzman Building in Engl.332 : [Six] buturs.
- (1327) in Salzman Building in Engl.332 : [For the ironwork of 12] butours.
- (1344) in Salzman Building in Engl.332 : [4 iron pikes for 4] botours.
- (1396) in Salzman Building in Engl.332 : Vj viroll, vj pykes pro hastis vocatis botours ad maeremium sublevandum.
- (1413) in Salzman Building in Engl.332 : [3 poles called] botteres [for the carpenters].
Note: All quots. (but one) antedate word.
Note: These quots. seem to belong to a new sense (d), and although Salzman defines the term: "'Butters' were stout poles shod with iron, used as shores for such purposes as raising or holding up the frame of a house during underpinning", these quots. may belong to boteras(se n.
Supplemental Materials (draft)
Note: The list of variant spellings in the form section is incomplete and needs revision to accord with standards of later volumes of the MED. Provisional revised form section: Also botur, butur, buttir; pl. botours, etc. & botteres.--notes per MLL
Supplemental Materials (draft)
Note: Med., etc., see further J.Norri, Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary, s.v. butour.