faitour Obs. exc. arch.
(ˈfeɪtə(r))
Forms; 4–7 faytor, -tour(e, -towre, 6 fayter, feytour, 4– faitour.
[a. AF. faitour, OF. faitor doer, maker:—L. factōr-em: see factor n. The special sense of ‘impostor’ seems to be peculiarly AF. and Eng.; cf. OF. faiture sorcery, spell.]
1. An impostor, cheat; esp. a vagrant who shams illness or pretends to tell fortunes.
App. already obsolescent in 1568, as Grafton Chron. II. 598 glosses it ‘as much to say as loyterer, vagabond, or begger’. Sir W. Scott often uses it arch.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxx. 16 Þai ere all faitors & ypocrites & iogulors þat desayues men. [1383 Act 7 Rich. II, c. 5 Governours des villes & lieux ou tielx faitours & vagerantz vendront.] c 1430 Life of St. Kath. (1884) 23 Put me in duresse as þouȝ I were a faytour. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) i. xxx. 69 These faytours that ben called sothe sayers. 1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1209/2 Nor to beleue euery faytor..that will saye hymselfe that he is verye sycke. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. May 39 Those faytours [gloss. vagabonds] little regarden their charge. 1624 Bp. R. Montagu Gagg 104 As faitors use, you play fast and loose. 1813 Scott Trierm. ii. xi, Tyrant proud, or faitour strong. 1828 ― F.M. Perth viii, Yonder stands the faitour, rejoicing at the mischief he has done. |
b. nonce-use. The disease of being a ‘faitour’.
| c 1500 Blowbol's Test. 25 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 93 He was infecte..With the faitour, or the fever lordeyn. |
† 2. Comb. faitour's grass: Spurge, the acrid juice of which was used in malingering.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 146 Faytowrys gresse, or tytymal. 1534 Fitzherbert Husbandry (E.D.S.) lix, A Grasse that is called feitergrasse [ed. 1598 fettergrass]. |