fletcher
(ˈflɛtʃə(r))
Also 5 fleccher(e, flecher, flecchour; Sc. fle(d)ger.
[ad. OF. flecher, flechier arrow-maker, f. flèche arrow: see flèche.]
1. One who makes or deals in arrows; occasionally, one who makes bows and arrows. Obs. exc. Hist. or arch.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 1593 Ferrers, flecchours, fele men of Crafte. 1457 Sc. Acts Jas. II, c. 65 (1814) II. 48/2 A bowar and a fleger. 1465 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 179 The flecher that..owyth hym ffor tymber, ixs. vjd. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 9 §1 The bowiers, fletchers, stringers and arrowe head makers of this your realme. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 667 Which timber is of great..estimation amongst Fletchers, for it maketh the strongest and best arrow of any wood whatsoeuer. 1664 Evelyn Sylva (1776) 218 Our Fletchers commend it [the Quick-beam] for Bows next to Yew. 1733 P. Lindsay Interest Scot. 56 Any other Corporation decayed and worn out, such as the Bowers, Fletchers, and several others in London are, as to their Business. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xxi. (1857) 460 As if some fletcher of the stone age had carried on his work on the spot. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Fletchers' Company, one of the minor livery companies of London. |
| attrib. 15.. Kyng & Hermyt 477 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 32 Jake, seth thou can of flecher crafte, Thou may me es with a schafte. |
† 2. An archer, a bowman.
Obs.| 1529 More Dyaloge i. Wks. 143/1 Though one eye wer ynough for a fletcher. |
Hence
ˈfletchery, the wares or goods made or sold by a fletcher.
| 1594 2nd Rep. Dr. Faustus in Thoms E.E. Prose Rom. (1858) III. 411 They brought store of fletchery to them. |