antler
(ˈæntlə(r))
Forms: 3 ? antolier, auntolier, 4–5 auntelere, hauntelere, 5–6 auntler, 6–8 antlier, 6– antler.
[a. OFr. antoillier (i.e. antoʎer):—late L. *ant(e)oculār-em (ramum) the ‘branch’ or tine of a stag's horn ‘in front of the eyes’; cf. Ger. augensprosze ‘eye-sprout.’ Antoillier represented an earlier *antoglier (cf. OFr. avogle, It. avocolo:—L. abocul-um, and OFr. oill for *ogl:—oculum), later OFr. andoillier, now andouiller (see Dr. Bugge in Romania IV. 349). The original English form must have been antolier, auntolier, whence, by weakening and eventual loss of atonic o, auntelere, auntler, antler.]
1. orig. The lowest (forward-directed) branch of the horn of a stag or other deer; afterwards extended to any branch, the lowest being then called the brow-antler, and the next bes-antler.
| 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles ii. 128 Ȝoure hauntelere dere were all y-takyn. a 1420 Venery de Twety in Rel. Ant. I. 151 Whan an hert hath fourched, and then auntelere ryall, and surryall, and forched on the one syde, and troched on that other syde, than is he an hert of .x. and of the more. c 1520 Skelton Speke Parrot 481 So bygge a bulke of brow auntlers cabbagid that yere. 1583 Stanyhurst Aeneis i. (1880) 23 Chiefe stags vpbearing croches high from the antlier hauted. 1608 Norden Surv. Dial. 183 What Deere hath the Lord of this Mannor in his Park, red and fallow: how many of Antler, and how many rascall? 1686 Phil. Trans. XVI. 225 The Andouilleres of a Staggs Horn. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. i. 289 The Fallow Hart or Stag doth bear his Head high..has small Beams, with long, slender, and ill-grown Antliers. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Antler, among hunters, the first of the pearls that grow about the bur of a deer's horn. There are also sur-antlers, brow-antlers, etc. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii, Huge stags with sixteen antlers. 1864 Derby Merc. 14 Dec., The curious articles made from the brow antler of a stag's horn. |
2. Hence popularly: The branched horn of a stag or other deer.
| 1829 Scott Demonol. x. 395 A vaulted apartment garnished with stags' antlers. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §260 The Deer tribe, distinguished by the possession of long deciduous horns, covered with a soft skin or velvet..and termed Antlers. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. II. iii. vi. 164 The skull and antlers of a gigantic deer. |