pewter
(ˈpjuːtə(r))
Forms: 4–5 peutre, 4–6 pewtre, 4–8 peuter, 4– pewter (also 5 peautyr, pewtyr(e, 5–7 peauter, 6 pewtur, 6–7 puter, 7–8 pewther); 4 peudur, -yr, 5 -dre, peauder, 5–6 (–9 dial.) pewder.
[ME. a. OF. peutre, peautre, peaultre, pialtre, etc. (from 12th c. in Godef.), repr. an earlier *peltre = It. peltro, Sp. peltre. In later OF. also espiautre, espeautre; in Du. piauter, and spiauter (in Kilian, peauter, speauter), Ger. spiauter, LG. spialter. The mutual relations of these forms and the origin of the word are unascertained: see Diez (s.v. peltro), Körting (s.v. *peltrum), Littré, Hatz.-Darm., Franck (s.v. Piauter), Skeat; and cf. spelter. The form with d (pewder) is still in dialect use.]
1. a. A grey alloy of tin and lead, usually containing one fifth of its weight of lead, for which other metals are sometimes substituted, partly or entirely, in the composition of different varieties.
| [1292 Britton i. xvi. §6 Qi mauveise chose vendent pur bone, sicum peutre pur argent ou latoun pur or.] 1370 Bury Wills (Camden) 1 In vasis de pewtre debil. iiijs. ijd. 1387 in E.E. Wills (E.E.T.S.) 2 The lauour of peuter with the basyn of led. 1388–9 Abingdon Acc. (Camden) 57, j charg' de peudur. c 1425 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903) 311 Do thi licour in a vessel of peauder, or of leed, or of glas. c 1450 in Cal. Let. Bk. D. City of Lond. (1902) 202 Alle the pottis of peuter that ye fynde not aselyd. 1552–3 Inv. Ch. Goods Staffs. in Ann. Lichfield IV. 17 A cruett of puter. 1552 Inv. Ch. Goods York, etc. (Surtees No. 97) 18, ij crewettes of pewder. 1602 Narcissus (1893) 277 Whose head doth shine with bright hairs white as pewter. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. II. vi. 35 A chalice of gold, or silver, or at least of pewter. 1833 H. Martineau Three Ages i. 9 The service of pewter made a grand display. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 952 The English tradesmen distinguish three sorts, which they call plate, trifle, and ley pewter; the first and hardest being used for plates and dishes; the second for beer-pots; and the third for larger wine measures. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. i. 55 A small proportion of antimony combined with tin forms hard pewter. |
b. Pewter utensils collectively; pewter ware.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 175 That pewter is neuer for manerly feastes, That daily doth serue so vnmanerly beastes. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 357 Pewter and brasse, and all things that belongs To house or house-keeping. 1596 ― 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 51 Fiue yeares: Berlady a long Lease for the clinking of Pewter. 1604 Knaresborough Wills (Surtees) I. 244 All the pewther as yt standes. 1717 Ramsay Elegy on Lucky Wood iv, Her pewther glanc'd upo' your een Like siller plate. 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. II. 72 We ate off pewter, a relic of old customs. |
c. The colour of the alloy, a bluish or silver grey.
| 1971 Vogue Nov. 81/1 One size tights in palest pewter. 1979 Guardian 28 Apr. 32/2 Single-leg stocking tights... Colours: Dark Tan, Mink, American Tan, Pewter, Black. |
2. † a. Applied to armour:
cf. pewter coat in 5.
| 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster v. iv, And every man trace to his home again, And hang his pewter up. |
b. A pewter pot. Also
fig.| a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 233 Now drinking from the pewter. 1853 G. J. Cayley Las Alforjas II. 54 A huge glass mug with a handle, as big as a pewter. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xi, Stopping in the bar to lay hands on several pewters full of porter. |
c. slang. A tankard or ‘cup’ given as a prize; prize-money; money.
| 1829 P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 90 The exertions of Jack's fists and his tongue were both rewarded by a shower of browns, and also a little pewter into the bargain. 1842 Egan Macheath, Bould Yeoman v. (Farmer), Hand up the pewter, farmer, you shall have a share. 1873 Slang Dict., Pewter,..the pots for which rowing men contend are often called pewters. 1888 Academy 24 Mar. 202/1 The anxiety for ‘pewter’ or prize money, which..animated our officers and men. |
† 3. A pale yellow alloy of gold and silver;
= electre 1,
electrum 2.
Obs. Perhaps only a traditional entry in successive vocabularies, founded
orig. on some misunderstanding.
| c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wulcker 653/12 Hoc Electrum, pewtyre. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 395/2 Pewtyr, metalle, electrum, secundum communem scolam. 1483 Cath. Angl. 277/2 Pewdyr, electrum. 1552 Huloet, Pewter, electrum, or it is a kynde of mettall, halfe golde, halfe siluer, or parte. |
4. A polishing medium used by marble-workers, made by the calcination of tin.
| 1875 in Knight Dict. Mech. |
5. a. attrib. passing into adj. Made or consisting of pewter; also
humorously, in
pewter coat (
quot. 1584), a cuirass, coat of mail;
† pewter language (
quot. 1615), pothouse talk.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 192 Leie it in a peuter disch. 1422–3 Abingdon Acc. (Camden) 94, j pewderpot de potel. 1522 in Bury Wills (Camden) 115 A grett pewter basen. 1525–6 Rec. St. Mary at Hill 333 A pewtur pott for watur for the preistes. 1584 Lyly Campaspe v. iii, These pewter coates canne neuer sitte so wel as satten dublets. 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 1 Mounsieur Bacchus,..singuler Artist in pewter language. 1631–2 in Swayne Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1876) 316 A quarte and a pinte of pewter pottes. 1688 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 384 Two and twenty peauter Trenchers plaits. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 272 Placing a large Pewter⁓platten under the Cluster of Bees. 1816 Scott Antiq. iv, With a pewter badge on the right arm. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge ii, A table decorated with a white cloth, bright pewter flagons. 1894 Daily News 10 Feb. 5/2 The old familiar pewter pot is disappearing from London public⁓houses, and its place is being taken by the Continental glass. |
b. Of the colour of pewter.
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 46 Galleys of the Lochlanns ran here to beach,..their bloodbeaked prows riding low on a molten pewter surf. 1972 ‘H. Buckmaster’ Walking Trip 135 They stood silently looking at the pewter water and pewter sky. 1975 B. Garfield Death Sentence (1976) xxix. 137 The sky had thickened and gone pewter. |
6. Comb., as
pewter-maker,
pewter-making;
pewter-buttoned,
pewter-like,
pewter-topped adjs.;
pewter-carrier, one who serves in an ale-house, a potman;
pewter-case, a case for holding pewter utensils;
pewter grey = sense 1 c;
pewter-mill, a lapidary's wheel made of pewter, used with rotten-stone and water for polishing gems of medium hardness (amethyst, agate, cornelian);
pewter-solder, soft solder, of similar composition to pewter, but containing a greater proportion of lead. Also
pewterwort.
| 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Dryden III. 110 It haunts me worse than a *pewter-buttoned serjeant does a decayed cit. |
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple ii, I say, you *pewter-carrier, bring us another pint of ale. |
| 1789 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 214/1 The fluid passed from the bell to the *pewter-case, and spent its force there. |
| 1973 J. Rossiter Manipulators xiii. 134 Lampett Street was long..its *pewter-grey length made residential by the planting of trees. 1975 ‘D. Jordan’ Black Account xxxviii. 193 The White Nile is no longer white but pewter grey. |
| 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. ii. 38 Leggings formed of a *pewter-like metal. |
| 1902 Stirling Nat. Hist. & Archæol. Soc. 22 Robert was a *pewter-maker. |
| 1888 Hasluck Model Engin. Handybk. 138 Using ordinary ‘soft’ or *pewter solder for uniting surfaces that are already tinned. |
| 1891 Pall Mall G. 29 Oct. 2/2 Shouting and gesticulating, in front of the long, *pewter-topped barrier. |