poulter arch.
(ˈpəʊltə(r))
Forms: 4–6 pulter, 5 -ur, 6 -ar, -or, powlter, 6– poulter (7 pulleter).
[ad. OF. pouletier (c 1230 in Godef.) in same sense, f. poulet pullet + -ier, -er2.]
1. a. = poulterer. Obs. exc. as name of one of the London City Companies.
| a 1400 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 353 No ffysshyere ne no pulter ne shal bygge ffysche ne pultrye for to aȝen selle, er þat vndren be y-ronge. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 166 A pulter that sellithe a fat swan, For a goselyng that grasithe on bareyn clowris. 1548 Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI, c. 15 §1 Bruers Bakers Poulters Cookes. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 56 To rere vp much pultrie, and want the barne doore, Is naught for the pulter and woorse for the poore. 1622 Peacham Compl. Gent. i. (1634) 5 Nicholas the fifth was sonne of a Poulter, Sixtus the fift, of a Hog⁓heard. 1633 [see poulterer b]. 1884 Rep. Lond. Livery Comp. III. 688 The Poulters' Company existed by prescription as early as 1345. It was, however, incorporated by Royal Charter in the 19th year of Henry VII, on 23rd February 1504. |
b. poulter's measure, a fanciful name for a metre consisting of lines of 12 and 14 syllables alternately (corresponding to the modern ‘short metre’): see quots.
| 1576 Gascoigne Instruct. making Verse in Steele Gl., etc. (Arb.) 39 The commonest sort of verse which we vse now adayes (viz. the long verse of twelue and fourtene sillables) I know not certainly howe to name it, vnlesse I should say that it doth consist of Poulters measure, which giueth xii. for one dozen and xiiij. for another. 1586 W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 62 When one staffe containeth but two verses, or (if they bee deuided) foure: the first or the first couple hauing twelue sillables, the other fourteene, which versifyers call Powlters measure, because so they tall[i]e their wares by dozens. 1838 Guest Eng. Rhythms II. 233. 1900 W. Raleigh in W. E. Henley Castiglione's Bk. of Courtier p. xlv, The one-legged poulter's measure is not responsible for all the horrors of this. 1962 G. K. Hunter John Lyly iv. 244 The case with ‘fourteeners’ or ‘poulter's measure’ is even more obvious. 1972 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Nov. 1363/1 Poulter's measure (the form of verse with alternating lines of twelve and fourteen syllables). |
† 2. An officer of the royal or other household, or of a monastery, etc. who attended to the purchase of poultry and other provisions. Obs.
| c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 581 in Babees Bk. 318 The clerke to kater and pulter is, To baker and butler bothe y-wys Gyffys seluer. a 1483 Liber Niger Edw. IV (P.R.O., Exch. T.R., Misc. Bk. 230), Anothre of these gromys ys callyd..grome surgeon, another grome pulter. 1522 Rutland Papers (Camden) 84 Item, to appouynt iiij pulters to serue for the said persons of all maner pultry. 1601 F. Tate tr. Househ. Ord. Edw. II §51 A serjant pulleter..shal..take thadvise of the asseour of the kinges table [etc.] what he shal bringe to court. |
3. Comb., as poulter-man, poulter-pannier.
| 1424–5 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 620, 1 par. de Pulter⁓panyers. 1534 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 126 Ye s{supd} pulter man. |
Hence ˈpoulteress, a woman who deals in poultry, a female poulterer.
| 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6194/10 Elizabeth Smith,..Poulteress. |