twinter, a. and n. Chiefly north. and Sc.
(ˈtwɪntə(r))
Forms: 5–6 twynter, (5 twyntour, 6 twintter, twyntter, tynter, twenter), 6– twinter; also 6 qwintter, 9 Sc. quinter.
[Reduced f. OE. twi-wintre, -winter of two winters: see twi- and winter, and cf. thrinter. So WFris. twinter- two years old (of horses or cows; known to Kilian in tweenter-, twinterdier), and twinter (also twainter) a two-year-old horse or cow, NFris. twenter an ox of this age.]
A. adj. Of two winters; two years old: said of cattle and sheep (also of colts).
| 1537 N.C. Wills (Surtees 1908) 103 To every oon..of my kynde servauntes..oon twynter calf. 1540 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 94, ij twintter bolokes..one twyntter heffer. 1582 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 1 A twinter kowlt. 1620 Ibid. 245 A twinter steere. 1638 Will E. Burton in Reliquary VIII. 221 One twinter bay filly with a whyte foote. 1844 Stephens Bk. Farm II. 38 After a ewe has been shorn three times she is called a twinter ewe, that is, a two-winter ewe. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Twinter, ‘a twinter stot’, an ox of two winters old. |
B. n. A two-year-old cow, ox, horse, or sheep.
| 1404 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 399 Item xiiij twynterys. 1408 Hist. MSS. Comm., Var. Coll. II. 16 Vnum twyntour. 1513 Douglas æneis v. ii. 105 Five twinteris britnit he,..and tydy quyis. 1536 Durham Acc. Rolls 419, 4 Trynters, 7 Twynters, 9 Stirks. 1567 Richmond. Wills (Surtees) 204 One yonge colte beinge a twinter. 1570 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 341, xxiij twenters, stotts and whies. 1674 Blount Glossogr., Twinters, Cattle of two Winters old, so called in Bedford-shire. c 1720 Ramsay Ram & Buck 22 When sleet Made twinters and hog-wedders bleet. 1777 Antiq. in Ann. Reg. ii. 149/1 Twinter, a calf two winters or two years old: Derbyshire. 1808 Compl. Grazier (ed. 3) 97 The name of the female neat cattle is for the first year, cow⁓calf, then a..twinter. 1868 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Ser. ii. IV. ii. 428, I turned 20 yearly calves and ‘twinters’—as two-year-old animals are locally termed—into a 6-acre field. a 1898 [see thrinter]. |
b. transf. Applied to pasture for, or the right to pasture, a two-year-old sheep, in a common or jointly-held field.
| 1846 Award cited in High Crt. of Justice (1892), Chanc. Div. (Coulston v. Harvey), Four gaits, two twinters, in Bolton Highfield. 1892 Ibid., The Plaintiffs are entitled to 11 gaits 2 twinters and 2 claws or..22 a. 1 r. 35 p. And the Defendants to 2 gaits and 1 claw or..3 a. 2 r. 5 p. |