▪ I. couper, cowper Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈkaʊpə(r))
[f. coup v.1 + -er.]
One who barters, deals, or buys and sells. Cf. coper. Now chiefly in Comb., as herring-couper, horse-couper, etc.
| 1581 Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1597) §122 The halding of horses at hard meat all the Sommer season, vsed commounlie be..Cowppers. a 1662 R. Baillie Lett. I. 85 (Jam.) The horse which our coupers had bought at Morton fair. 1792 Statist. Acc. Scotl. VI. 44 note (Jam.) Nor are they..a match for horse-cowpers, cow-cowpers,—the people that farmers have to deal with. 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scot. xiii. (1855) 121 Its visitants [were] Dutch herring-coupers. |
▪ II. couper
obs. form of cooper, copper.