discoverer
(dɪˈskʌvərə(r))
Forms: 4 discurer, 5 des- dys- discoverour, dyscowerer, -cuerer, -curer, discurrour, -owr, -cowrrour, 6 (Sc.) discuriour, 6– discoverer.
[ad. OF. descouvreur, -eor (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.). mod.F. découvreur, f. descouvrir to discover = It. discopritore. Sp. descubridor; repr. late L. type *discooperitōr-em.]
† 1. One who makes known, discloses, or reveals (a secret); an informer. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 27469 (Cott.) Þe tent if he tell o þis man o scrift es he discurer þan. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 122/1 Dyscurer, or dyscowerer of cownselle (v.r. discuerer), arbitrer. 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 122 Wine saith Ovid, is the discoverer of secrets. 1691–8 Norris Pract. Disc. (1707) IV. 155 Jesus Christ is the first Discoverer of the other world. 1692 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 606 The authors are searched for, and great rewards offered to the discoverers. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 198 There is somewhat of a universal abhorrence in men's minds to a discoverer. 1778 Phil. Surv. S. Irel. 251 I'll turn discoverer, and in spite of you..I shall become heir. |
† 2. One sent out to reconnoitre; a scout, spy, explorer. Obs.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce ix. 244 The discurrouris saw thame cumande With baneris to the vynd vafand. 1513 Douglas æneis i. viii. 124 And with discuriouris keip the coist on raw. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 175 b, They [bees] send abroad their discoverers to finde out more foode. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. i. 3 Here..send discouerers forth, To know the numbers of our Enemies. 1625 Bp. R. Montagu Appeal Cæsar xxxvii. 320 A field of Thistles seemed once a battell of Pikes unto some Discoverers of the Duke of Burgundy. |
3. One who discovers or finds out that which was previously unknown.
| 1600 Hakluyt Voy. III. 20 (R.) This frier..was the greatest discouerer by sea, that hath bene in our age. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. XI. lxii. (1612) 271 Caboto (whose Cosmographie and selfe-proofe brake the Ise To most our late discouerers). 1718 Prior Knowledge 319 Foreign isles which our discoverers find. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 691 He was not..the first great discoverer whom princes and statesmen had regarded as a dreamer. |
† 4. (?) An umpire between two combatants in a tournament. Obs.
Cf.1440 in 1.
| 1460 Lybeaus Disc. 925 Taborus and trompours, Herawdes goode descoverours, Har strokes gon descrye. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. IV, (an. 1) 12 Not onely..to see..their manly feates..but also to be the discoverer and indifferente judge..of their courageous actes. |