comˈpounder
[f. compound v. + -er1.]
One who compounds, in the various senses of the vb.
1. a. One who makes a compound of ingredients.
| 1622 G. G. Creat. Praysing God 8 Their composition..must necessarily presuppose first a compounder. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xix, To propose another [health] in honour of the punch-compounder. 1855 Brewster Newton II. xxv. 373 The most ignorant compounder of simples. 1883 Dr. E. Downes in Rep. Calcutta Missionary Conf. 414 In a large Hospital..a native Doctor, two Compounders, and a Steward..would be required. Ibid. 416 The compounders..give out the medicines. |
b. compounder of medicine, a pharmacist attached to the army medical corps.
| 1894 Campbell-Bannerman in Hansard's Parl. Deb. Ser. iv. XXVI. 830 With regard to the apothecaries, he was glad to say they were an expiring body, and as they ceased their places were taken by a class of non-commissioned officers who were called compounders of medicine. 1899 Daily News 21 Dec. 3/1 Royal Army Medical Corps. Compounders of medicine are urgently required for service in South Africa. |
† 2. a. One who settles or composes strife or quarrels; reproachfully, a compromiser. Obs.
| 1539 Tonstall Serm. Palm Sund. (1823) 73 Lyttell warre hath ben in..Christendome, but the bysshop of Rome..hath ben a styrrer of it..seldome any compounder of it. 1581 Lambarde Eiren. i. ii. (1602) 10, I wish him to be, as well..a Compounder, as a Commissioner of the peace. 1612–20 Shelton Quix. iv. xix. (1652) 124 They held it to bee the best course to..bee compounders of peace and amity between Sancho Panca and the Barber. 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. vii, Softners, sweetners, compounders, and expedient-mongers. |
b. Hist. A name given (c 1692) to those who wished for a restoration of James II under guarantees for the constitution and with a general amnesty.
| 1775 J. Macpherson Orig. Papers I. 445 His friends in Britain, who wanted to restore him on conditions, and were known by the name of compounders. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xv. 127 The Jacobite faction was divided between compounders and non-compounders. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 385. |
3. a. One who compounds for a liability, debt, or charge; one who compounds a felony or offence; one who pays a lump sum in discharge of recurrent payments to which he is liable.
| 1542 in W. H. Turner Select Rec. Oxford 167 Thomas Malynson shall have..the..place of a Chamberleyn..as a compownder. 1578 Ibid. 395 Eyerye Chamberlen, or compounder for Chamberlenshippe ijd. 1660 Milton Free Commw. ¶7. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 58 Our holiest actions have been Th' effects of wickedness and sin: Religious Houses made Compounders For th' horrid Actions of the Founders. 1763 Brit. Mag. IV. 175 Compounders neglecting..to pay their composition-money. 1832 Act 2–3 Will. IV, c. 100 §5 Any person compounding for tithes..or..any tenant of any such..lessee or compounder. 1888 Pall Mall G. 20 July 14/1 A compounder of felony..and a suborner of false testimony. |
b. Grand Compounders and Petty Compounders: in the University of Oxford, proceeders or inceptors who paid higher fees for their degrees in consideration of being possessed of an independent income. (Abolished in 1853. Burke's use is erroneous.)
| 1682 Wood Life (1848) 245 Bishop Brideoake's son of Trinity to be M.A., five terms given to him, and to go out grand compounder. 1691 ― Fasti Oxon. an. 1522 I. 665 Richard Parker a compounder, or one that payed double or treble fees for his Degree, as having a temporal estate. 1714 Ayliffe Univ. Oxford iii. i. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 384 Grand compounders in politicks, who shorten the road to their degrees in the state. 1870 G. V. Cox Recoll. Oxford xii, ‘Have you {pstlg}300 a year of your own?’ if ‘yes’..‘then you are a Grand Compounder and your fees are so and so.’ If under {pstlg}300 a year and above {pstlg}5, the Proceeder was entered as Petty Compounder, and paid 10s. 8d. more. |