▪ I. ˈruttier Now arch.
Also 5– rutter, 6 ruter.
[ad. F. routier, f. route route n.]
A set of instructions for finding one's course at sea; a marine guide to the routes, tides, etc. Cf. routier.
| α a 1500 (title), The Booke of the Sea Carte called the Rutter, which sheweth ye tydes, courses, kennynges,..aboute the whole Ile of Brytanye. 1561 Eden Arte Nauig. Pref. ¶¶i, Without any Rutter or Carde of Nauigation. 1594 Blundevil Exerc., Art Navig. lv. (1597) 353 Whose Tables touching the tydes are called Rutters. Ibid., I would wish such general Rutter to be made in maner of an Alphabet. 1937 Geogr. Jrnl. XC. 386 It appears that there were existing rutters up to this point. 1962 [see routier1]. 1971 S. E. Morison European Discovery Amer.: Northern Voy. v. 138 The rutters (routiers), unofficial coast pilots of the period [sc. the sixteenth century], were written primarily for finding one's way along European shores. 1973 D. Divine Opening of World v. 85 An English Rutter, the northern and slightly less refined version of the portolano, describing a harbour entrance in 1295. |
| β 1600 Hakluyt Voy. III. 719 A ruttier or course to be kept for him that will sayle from Cabo Verde to the coast of Brasil. 1611 Cotgr., Routier,..a Ruttier; a directorie for the knowledge, or finding out of courses, whether by sea or land. 1802 in James Milit. Dict. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! i, See if he don't tell you over the ruttier as well as Drake himself. |
▪ II. ruttier
see rutter1.