▪ I. † ˈpotager1 Obs.
Forms: 4, 8 potager, 4–5 -ere, 5 -are, 6 Sc. potiser, pottisear. See also pottinger2.
[ME. potager, a. F. potager, in 15th c. a maker of potages (Littré), now obs. in this sense: see potage, pottage.]
A maker of pottage or potage; one who cooks vegetables.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 157, I haue be cook in hir kichyne and þe couent serued..I was þe priouresses potagere, and other poure ladyes. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 1 Cure..most be don in thrinne degre This, hasteler, pasteler, and potagere. 1483 Cath. Angl. 288/1 A Potagare, legvminarius. c 1575 Chalmerlane Air in Balfour's Practicks (1754) 585 Gif thair be ony Cuikis or Pottisearis, quha bakis pyis. a 1578 [see pottinger2]. 1727 S. Switzer Pract. Gard. iii. xxxiii. 177 It may be truly said, says that haughty potager [Mons. de la Quintinye, a celebrated gardener] in praise of his great master. |
▪ II. potager2
(pɔtaʒe)
[Fr.: see potagere.]
= potagere.
| c 1786 T. Blaikie Diary Scotch Gardener (1931) 199 This garden..goes with a narrow stripe of potager to the point du jour where there is another potager. 1792 A. Young Trav. France i. 99 There is a town, and a great potager to remove before it would be consonant with English ideas. 1885 H. James Little Tour in France iii. 20 Your eye wanders over the neighbouring potagers. 1926 Spectator 9 Oct. 581/2 The herb garden..lost its supremacy to the potager or vegetable garden less than two centuries ago. 1958 L. Durrell Spirit of Place (1969) 146, I calculate that with ten chickens and the excellent potager out there I shall just squeeze by. 1966 A. Christie Third Girl iv. 35 In England..you do not love your potager as much as you love your flowers. 1978 J. Lees-Milne Round the Clock 55 The north garden..would be called the potager, were it in France. Vegetables, espaliers, roses and lawns were neatly compartmented. |
▪ III. potager
early form of pottinger1.