▪ I. painter1
(ˈpeɪntə(r))
Forms: 4–5 peyntour, peynteur, payntoure, -eore, 4–6 payntur, 5 paintour, payntor, peyntoure, poyntowre, panter, 5–6 payntour, peynter, 5–7 paynter, (6 peyntar, penter, peincter), 5– painter.
[ME. a. AF. peintour = OF. peintour, -tor (regimen-case of peintre = Pr. pintor, Sp., Pg. pintor, It. pintore):—Com. Romanic pinctōr-em, for L. pictōr-em, agent-n. from pingĕre to paint. In 15–16th c., the ending was conformed to the -er of native agent-nouns.]
One who paints.
1. a. An artist who represents or depicts objects on a surface in colours; one who paints pictures.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 2308 Ne swa sleygh payntur never nan was,..Þat couthe..paynt a poynt aftir þair liknes. c 1375 Paynteore [see paint v.1 1]. 1382 Wyclif Esther i. 6 The whiche thing the peynteur with wonder diuersete made fair. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 407/1 Poyntowre, or peyntoure, pictor. 1538 in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. xii. 238 Payde to Hans Holbyn, one of the Kingis paynters. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer i. K b, A most excellent peincter. 1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. 223, I avoid the sight of all Paynters..lest they shew me the patterne of my pale visage. 1759 Johnson Rasselas xxix, A painter must copy pictures. 1870 Ruskin Lect. Art v. 121 The greatest of English painters..our own gentle Reynolds. |
b. fig. One who describes something in a pictorial or graphic style; a pictorial describer.
| 1570 Dee Math. Pref. 37 To describe..how, vsuall howers, may be (by the Sunnes shadow) truely determined: will be found no sleight Painters worke. 1774 Goldsm. Retal. 63 A flattering painter, who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are. a 1877 Bagehot Lit. Stud. (1879) 205 The great works of the real painters of essential human nature. |
2. a. A workman who coats or colours the surface of things (as woodwork, ironwork, etc.) with paint.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 1591 Of all þe craftes..Parnters, painters, pynners also; Bochers, bladsmythis, baxters amonge. 1483 Act 1 Rich. III, c. 12 §1 Artificers of the said Realm..Spurriers, Goldbeaters, Painters, Sadlers. c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. 9 Fyners, plommers, and penters. 1711 Act 10 Anne c. 18 §57 All..Printers Painters or Stainers of any such Paper. 1862 All Yr. Round 18 Oct. 133 Orphans of parents—bricklayers, painters, carpenters—‘who had never been upon the parish’. 1891 E. Peacock N. Brendon I. 26 We are compelled to call both the President of the Royal Academy and the man who paints our carts and hot-bed frames by the common name of painter. |
b. With
of, or in objective comb.: One who paints (
i.e. either ‘depicts’, or ‘adorns with colour’) what is indicated by the context. Also
fig.| 1844 Ld. Brougham A. Lunel III. iv. 125 She has some pretensions as a painter of still life. 1853 Whittier Garden 1 O Painter of the fruits and flowers, We own Thy wise design. Mod. He was a famous painter of lions. |
† 3. (See
quot.)
Obs.| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 152/1 Colours, of which there is only seven used in Glass-painting..Black, called Painter by them. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., chiefly appositive, as
painter-engraver,
painter-etcher,
painter-graver,
painter-husband,
painter-minister,
painter-muse,
painter-poet,
painter-saint;
painter-engraving,
painter-etching;
painter-like a., (
a) resembling or characteristic of a painter; (
b) picturesque, artistic;
painter's brush, (
a) (see
quot. 1685); (
b)
= Indian paint-brush (
Indian A. 4 b);
painter's colic, a form of colic to which painters who work with poisonous preparations of lead are liable, lead-colic;
† painter's gold, orpiment;
painter's (or painters') mussel, the freshwater mussel,
Unio pictorum;
† painter's oil, linseed oil.
| 1879 F. S. Haden About Etching i. 18 We shall have to show that the adoption of the tool, (except in the case of the *painter-engraver, who..was an original artist,) implies the practice of a secondary art. 1937 Burlington Mag. Feb. 77/1 Elevation to the level of painter-engravers such as Hausbuchmeister and Martin Schongauer. |
| 1890 F. S. Haden Art of Painter-Etcher 4 This great-master engraving, this original engraving, this *painter-engraving. |
| 1880 Times 23 Dec. 7/5 Society of *Painter Etchers.—.. The society..has been formed to ‘promote original etching and the interest of painters practising that branch of art’. 1920 E. H. Hubbard Etchings 128 The work of ‘painter-etchers’ (men who execute original subjects direct on the plate). 1975 Whitaker's Almanack 1976 1104/2 Painter-Etchers and Engravers, Royal Society of.., 26 Conduit Street, W.1. |
| 1890 F. S. Haden Art of Painter-Etcher 5 The singular restriction of the Fine Arts to three—Oil painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, to the exclusion of Water Colour painting and *Painter-Etching. |
| 1879 ― About Etching ii. 47 Leyden, Lucas Van..A Flemish *painter-graver of great reputation. |
| 1738 J. F. Fritsch tr. De Lairesse's Art of Painting I. vi. xv. 331 But since Beauty is attracting, and Deformity offensive, this certainly is true *Painter-like, which supposes the best and most agreeable Objects. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing ii. 138 The form will scarcely ever be forgotten..that has ever been looked on with a painter-like feeling. 1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. for Travellers Spain II. 595/2 Villafranca del Vierzo is truly Swiss-like,..with painter-like bridges. 1958 Economist 8 Nov. (Suppl.) 9/2 His painter-like method of composition ‘over the whole surface at once’. |
| 1693 Watts On Death Aged Relative v, The *painter-muse with glancing eye Observ'd a manly spirit nigh. |
| 1909 Daily Chron. 17 Mar. 3/3 Mr. Graham is what may be termed a *painter-poet. 1941 Blunden Thomas Hardy 262 The painter-poet insists on being very much in the middle of things time and again in Hardy's verse. |
| 1899 Month Jan. 38 The *painter-saint of Fiesole. |
| 1685 G. Meriton Nomencl. Cler. 356 A *Painter's Brush or Pencill, Penicillum. 1869 S. Bowles Our New West v. 104 The painter's brush, as familiarly called here, is a new flower to me. 1899 S. Hale Let. 22 Apr. (1919) 345 Mariposa lilies, painter's brush, poppies, and dozens of others. 1910 Mrs. H. Ward Canadian Born x. 206 Anderson had brought her to a wild garden of incredible beauty... Painter's brush, harebell, speedwell, golden-brown gaillardias. |
| 1822–34 Good's Study Med. I. 173 Two cases of violent *painter's colic. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 7 ‘Occupation neuroses’ such as painter's colic or mercurial tremor. |
| 1872 Ruskin Eagle's Nest §199 When the English gentleman becomes an art-patron, he employs his *painter-servant only to paint himself and his house. |
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Oropel, leather gilt, *painters gold [1599 Minsheu adds: Orpin or base gold for painters]. 1611 Cotgr., Oripeau, base gold, leafe gold, false gold, Orpine, Painters gold. |
| [1862 J. G. Jeffreys Brit. Conchol. I. 34 U[nio] pictorum... Painters'. 1865 L. Reeve Conchologia Iconica XXV. s.v. Unio, species 123 The painters' Unio. Shell elongately oblong,..fulvous-olive.] 1896 L. E. Adams Collector's Man. Brit. Land & Freshwater Shells (ed. 2) 148 The ‘*Painters' Mussel’ is found in similar localities to U[nio] tumidus. 1901 E. Step Shell Life 111 The Painter's Mussel.., so called because the valves were formerly used to hold artists' colours. 1952 J. Clegg Freshwater Life xvi. 268 The Painter's Mussel..has a long, thin shell, about two to three inches in length. 1974 M. Saul Shells 87 The more solid valves of the Painter's Mussel..were used by artists throughout Europe to hold their colours. |
| 1545 Rates of Customs c ij, *Paynters oyle the barrel. 1583 Ibid. D vj, Painters or Linsed Oyle. |
Add:
[1.] c. Astron. (With capital initial.) The constellation Pictor (formerly Equuleus Pictoris) in the southern hemisphere. Formerly called
Painter's Easel (see sense *4 below).
| 1959 Spitz & Gaynor Dict. Astron. & Astronautics 302 Pictor (the Painter). 1979 in Macmillan Dict. Astron. |
4. Painter's Easel (now
rare)
= sense *1 c above.
| 1877 G. F. Chambers Handbk. Descr. Astron. (ed. 3) vi. vii. 556 La Caille, in 1752, added—6. Equuleus Pictoris. The Painter's Easel. 1926 Peck's Southern Hemisphere Constellations (rev. ed.) 32/2 The Modern Constellations... Added by La Caille, a.d. 1752... Pictor (Equuleus Pictoris), the Painter's Easel. 1939 J. G. Inglis Easy Guide to Constellations (Index) p. iv, Pictor, Painter's Easel. |
▪ II. painter2 Naut. (
ˈpeɪntə(r))
Also 5–9
paynter, 7–9
penter.
[Derivation uncertain. Connexion with panter n.2, net, snare, F. pantière, has been conjectured; but no corroborative evidence has been found. Cf. paint v.2 Cf. also
OF. pentoir,
pendoir anything for hanging things on, of which
Godef. has one 15th c. instance glossed as ‘cordage de forte resistance’.]
1. The rope or chain with which the shank and flukes of the anchor, when carried at the cathead, are confined to the ship's side. Now always shank-painter,
q.v.| 1487 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 44 Paynters for the ankres..iiij. [1495 Ibid. 258 Bowpayntours for destrelles feble j Shankpayntors for destrelles worne & feble ij.] 1661 J. Tatham London's Tryumphs in Heath Grocer's Comp. (1869) 478 Stand ready by the Anchor Let go your open Penter, and hold fast your Stopper. [1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Shank-Painter, a short rope and chain which hangs the shank and flukes of an anchor up to the ship's side, as the stopper fastens the ring and stock to the cat-head.] |
2. A rope attached to the bow of a boat, for making it fast to a ship, a stake, etc.
| 1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 154 For the Long⁓boat... Painter, ½ the Boat Rope and 1/5 of the Le(ngth). 1757 Robertson in Phil. Trans. L. 34 The skiff was..let down; but the painter not being fast, the rope run an end, and the skiff went adrift. 1790 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Adv. to Fut. Laureat Wks. 1812 II. 338 Just like the Victory or Fame That by its painter drags the Gig or Yawl. 1806 Naval Chron. XV. 462 This..allowed time to cut the boat's penter. 1831 E. J. Trelawny Adv. Younger Son (1890) 311, I..slipped the painter which held the boat. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. ii. (1889) 15 [He] jumped out with the painter of his skiff in his hand. 1876 Besant & Rice Gold. Butterfly xv. 130 Painters in London boats are sometimes longish ropes, for convenience of mooring. |
b. to cut (or slip) the painter (
fig.): to send a person or thing ‘adrift’ or away; to clear off; to sever a connexion, effect a separation.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew s.v., I'll Cut your Painter for ye, I'll prevent ye doing me any Mischief. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., I'll cut your painter for you, I'll send you off. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., ‘Cut your painter’, make off. 1888 T. W. Reid Life W. E. Forster II. 99 The sooner we ‘cut the painter’ and let the Greater Britain drift from us the better it would be for Englishmen. 1891 E. Kinglake Australian at H. 4 On the contrary, the idea of ‘cutting the painter’ is not popular. |
▪ III. painter3 [Variant of panther, prob. from 16th c. Eng. panter or F. panthère (pronounced pantère).] Name in some parts of N. America for the American panther or cougar (
Felis concolor).
| 1803 J. Davis Trav. U.S.A. 382 My master..said that I ought to live among painters and wolves, and sold me to a Georgia man for two hundred dollars. 1823 J. F. Cooper Pioneers xxviii, It might frighten an older woman to see a she painter so near her, with a dead cub by its side. 1834 D. Crockett Narr. Life i. 5 This alarmed me, and I screamed out like a young painter. 1901 Roosevelt in Scribner's Mag. Oct., The cougar... In the Eastern States it is usually called panther or painter; in the Western States, mountain lion, or, toward the South, Mexican lion. The Spanish-speaking people usually call it simply lion. 1940 Arnold & Hale Hot Irons 9 You learn, accidentally, that a ‘painter’ is really a panther. 1972 Amer. Speech 1968 XLIII. 218 Mountain cuisine consisted almost entirely of meat: rattlesnake,..painter (panther), and rabbit. |