▪ I. costard
(ˈkɒstəd)
Also 5–6 costerd(e.
[app. of English formation; not found in OF. Perhaps f. OF. and AF. coste rib + -ard, meaning a prominently ribbed apple, a sense which agrees with the description of existing varieties so called.]
1. A kind of apple of large size.
Often mentioned from 14th to 17th c., after which the word passes out of common use, though still retained by fruit-growers in the name of one or more varieties of apple identical with or derived from the original Costard. The latter is described by R. Hogg, British Pomology 1853, as a large apple, distinctly five-sided, having five prominent ribs extending into the basin of the eye, and forming ridges round the crown. A Kentish grower who had Martin's Costard, described it in May 1892, as ‘a very large apple, shape oval, very much ribbed, a strong grower, bearing every other year.’
| 1292 Acc. of King's Fruiterer (Exch. Misc. T. R. 49/24, Record Off.) [Brought into Berwick Castle] cum eisdem ponder[a] iij{supc} pom[orum] costarð, prec[ium] cent. xiid. [1345 in Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xviii. 419.] a 1400 Pystyl of Susan 96 Þe costardes comeliche in cuþþes þei cayre. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 15 The frutis wiche more comon be, Quenyngez, pechis, costardes, etiam wardons. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 94 Costard, appulle, quiriarium. 1519 in Old City Acc. Bk. (Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII.), Gret costerds w{supt} peyers and wyn. 1564 Becon Display. Popish Mass (Parker Soc. 1844) 283 Ye..make merchandize of the sacrament, as the costardmonger doth of his costards and of his other fruits. 1676 T. Glover in Phil. Trans. XI. 628 All sorts of English Apples, as Pear-mains, Pippins, Russetens, Costards. 1853 R. Hogg Brit. Pomol. 62 The true Costard is now rarely to be met with. Modern authors make the Costard synonymous with the Catshead; but this is evidently an error..Ray describes both the Catshead and Costard as distinct, and Leonard Meager enumerates three varieties of Costard in his list—the white, grey, and red. |
2. Applied humorously or derisively to the head. arch. (Cf. coco-nut.)
| 1530 Palsgr. 679/1, I shall rappe you on the costarde if you playe the knave. a 1553 Udall Royster D. iii. v. (Arb.) 58, I knocke your costarde if ye offer to strike me. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 247 Ice try whither your Costard, or my Ballow be the harder. 1674 Ray S. & E. Countrey Words (1691) 93 Costard, the Head. It is a kind of opprobrious word used by way of Contempt. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xii, It's hard I should get raps over the costard, and only pay you back in make-believes. 1880 Webb Goethe's Faust i. xi. 56 Each other's costards let 'em split. |
† b. ? = cap. Obs.
| a 1625 Fletcher Woman's Prize iii. v, Ile make a close-stool of your velvet costard. |
▪ II. costard
= costrel, costret.
| 1503 Will of Ferrer (Somerset Ho.), Vnum ciphum vocat[um] costerd. 17.. Urry MS. additions to Ray (in Halliwell), Costard..(2) a flask, or flasket. |