▪ I. piner1 Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 5–6 pynour, 6 pinor, poyner, pyner, -ir, -or, -owr, 6– piner, 6–9 poiner, 7 pynnour.
[= MDu. piner, pijner (13th c.), f. pinen, pijnen to labour, toil: cf. pine v. 3, n.1 3.]
1. A labourer; now in N.E. Scottish dialects applied to a man who cuts peat, turf, etc.
| c 1420 Wyntoun Cron. ii. 559 Þe Egiptis for invy Anoyit þaim [Israelites] dispitously, And in all werkis þaim pynouris maid. Ibid. 1154 And mak þai men þar lauboraris, Masons, wrychtis and pynowraris. 1497 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 348 Giffin to pynouris to bere the treis to be Mons new cradil to hir. 1503 Ibid. II. 392 Payit to..James to cartaris and pynouris, for carying of beddis, clathes..fra the Castell to the Abbay. 1543 Aberdeen Regr. XVIII. (Jam.), The pynouris to help to dycht & cleynge the calsais, euery pynour his day abowtt. a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1848 II. 160 Sa scho wes lappit in a cope of leid, and keipit..unto the nyntene of October, quhen scho by pynouris wes caryed to a schip, and sa caryed to France. 1601 J. Melvill Diary (Wodrow Soc.) 493, I ley down at your feit my Commission as the pynnour does his burding. 1759 Fountainhall's Decisions I. 236 Forcing them to employ the common Piners in the Town, and exacting money for it. 1806 Case, Duff of Muirtown, &c. (Jam.), The people she saw..were poiners or carters from Inverness, who used to come there for materials. 1887 Bulloch Pynours v. 41 The pynour-fishermen pursuing their proper calling on the vasty deep. |
2. = pioneer 1, 2.
| 1587 Mirr. Mag., Aurel. Anton. xxv, My piners eke were prest with showle and spade T' interre the dead. Ibid., Sir N. Burdet lxx, Hee pyners set to trenche, and vnder mine amayne. 1581 Styward Mart. Discipl. ii. 122 There are to be placed thy piners who are to bee garded with .500. shot of each wing. |
▪ II. piner2
(ˈpaɪnə(r))
[f. pine v. + -er1.]
† 1. A tormentor. Obs.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xviii. 34 Hlaferd his ᵹesalde hine ðæm pinerum. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. vii. 46 The rest of his body,..the pynouris raue with an yrne tangs, meruellous artificiouslie, to his dolour and langsum pane. |
2. One who or that which pines; spec. an animal suffering from a wasting disease.
| 1882 Pall Mall G. 26 July 4/2 A large proportion of the grouse have the appearance of having died from starvation... The keepers..call the emaciated birds ‘piners’. 1893 Westm. Gaz. 11 Feb. 10/2 It seemed as if the bull would have to be killed as a ‘piner’. |
▪ III. piner3 local.
[f. pine n.2 + -er1.]
a. Tasmania. A man employed in hewing pine-trees. b. U.S. local. An inhabitant of a region where pine-trees abound.
| 1891 W. Tilley Wild West Tasmania 43 (Morris) The King River is only navigable for small craft... Piners' boats sometimes get in. 1894 Ralph in Harper's Mag. Aug. 337 The term ‘piners’ is synonymous with the term ‘poor whites’ in the South. |