informer
(ɪnˈfɔːmə(r))
Forms: 4–7 enfourmer, 5 enformer, -our, 6 infourmer, -our, 6– informer.
[f. inform v. + -er1.]
One who or that which informs, in various senses.
† 1. An instructor, teacher. Obs.
| 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love ii. ii. (Skeat) l. 87, I am seruaunt of these creatures to me deliuered..not maister, but enfourmer. 1526 Tindale Rom. ii. 20 An informer off them which lacke discrecion. 1565 Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 86 Catechistas, The Informers or Teachers of them that were entring into the faith. 1662 R. Mathew Unl. Alch. §35 Experience which is the truest informer, speaks aloud in this matter also. |
2. One who communicates information or intelligence; an informant.
| c 1422 Hoccleve Learn to Die 543 His enformours he wel leeueth. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 113 Jackalls..are the Lions informers. 1737 Whiston Josephus, Antiq. iii. xiii, Better have kept close to Josephus than hearken to any of his other authors or informers. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxxiii, He talks no Gaelic, nor had his informer much English, so there may be some mistake in the matter. |
3. One who informs against another; one who lays an information;
spec. one who makes it his business to detect offenders against penal laws and to lay informations against them; also called
common informer.
| 1503–4 Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 14 §6 Every such infourmour..shalbe receyved to sue vppon the seid matter by informacion. 1588–9 Act 31 Eliz. c. 5 Divers..daylie unjustlie vexed and disquieted by divers commen informers upon penall statutes. 1591 Greene Disc. Coosnage (1592) 18. c 1608 Bacon Certif. touching Penal Laws Wks. 1879 I. 480 To repress the abuses in common informers, and some clerks and under-ministers, that for common gain partake with them. 1759 Robertson Hist. Scot. vi. Wks. 1813 I. 436 Spies and informers were everywhere employed. 1798 Beresford in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1862) III. 411 We have..taken up several persons of family and fortune..and some have turned informers in whom we can rely. 1808 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) I. 131/2 An informer, whether he is paid by the week..or by the crime..is, in general, a man of a very indifferent character. 1817 Selwyn Nisi Prius II. 1148 A penalty..recoverable by common informer in the High Court of Admiralty. 1880 M{supc}Carthy Own Times IV. liii. 149 The man was found guilty on the evidence of an informer. |
| attrib. 1887 Pall Mall G. 16 Aug. 3/1 In the absence of ‘informer’ evidence the great majority of cases would fail for want of legal proof. |
4. One who or that which informs with life, etc. (
inform v. 3); an inspirer, animator, vitalizer.
| 1727–46 Thomson Summer 104 Thou O Sun!.. Informer of the planetary train, Without whose quickening glance their cumbrous orbs Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead, And not as now the green abodes of life. 1730 Pope Prol. Sophonisba 27 Nature! informer of the Poet's art, Whose force alone can raise or melt the heart. |
Hence
inˈformership (
nonce-wd.), the position or function of an informer.
| 1612 T. James Jesuits' Downf. 65 Parsons had the office of Informership in the English affaires, as well in Spaine as at Rome. |