planter
(ˈplɑːntə(r), -æ-)
[f. plant v. + -er1.]
I. Of persons.
1. One who sets plants in the ground to grow, or who sows seed; hence, a cultivator of the soil, a farmer, an agriculturist.
| 1382 Wyclif Jer. xxxi. 5 Plaunte shul plaunteres [Vulg. plantabunt plantantes]. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 809/32 Hic plantator, a plantor. 1575 Fenton Gold. Ep. (1577) 99 Fruites returne seedes to their planter. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 691 Chos'n by the sovran Planter, when he fram'd All things to mans delightful use. 1726 W. Hamilton To C'tess of Eglintoun w. Gentle Sheph., Or with th' industrious planter dost thou talk, Conversing freely in an ev'ning walk? 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 393 Planter of hops not obliged to give more than twenty-four hours' notice of his intention to weigh. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Aristocr. Wks. (Bohn) II. 78 The virtues of pirates gave way to those of planters, merchants, senators, and scholars. |
2. fig. One who plants a church, religion, institution, or the like, which takes root and grows.
| 1632 Sanderson Serm. I. 287 St. Peter, and St. Paul, the two chiefest planters of the churches. 1710 Prideaux Orig. Tithes ii. 36 The Ministers of the Gospel who were to be sent out to be the first Planters of it. 1870 E. Arber Ascham's Scholem. Introd. §5 These Planters of the ancient Literature in England hoped well of their Mother Tongue. |
3. a. One of the persons who ‘plant’ or found a colony; an early settler, a pioneer; a colonist; in Ireland, one of the English or Scotch settlers planted on forfeited lands in the 17th c. Hist.
| 1620 E. Blount Horæ Subs. 533 They seuerally giue different orders, and customes, according to the intent and purpose of the first Planters. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 641 A new Colony and plantation... The Planters sustaine themselves by what God and Nature affords them for their labour upon the place. 1657 Cromwell Sp. 21 Apr., We have settled almost all the affairs in Ireland; the rights and interests of the soldiers there, and of the planters and adventurers. a 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 197 Where the Accessions [to a Colony] are but thin and sparing, and scattered among the Natives of the Country where they come..it falls out that the very first Planters do soon degenerate in their Habits, Customs and Religion. 1699 Bentley Phal. 334 The Planters were the Phocæans, who were driven out of Asia by Harpagus. 1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia I. ii. vi. 306 The law of Gavil-kind, which the original planters had carried with them from Britain. 1868 E. Edwards Ralegh I. xxi. 479 The written records of..Ralegh's persistent labours as a planter are numerous. |
b. In Ireland, in 19th c., A person settled in the holding of an evicted tenant.
| 1890 Daily News 18 June 3/5 Mr. McCarthy gave..the reason for this refusal to sanction sales under the Ashbourne Act to the planter or emergency tenants who replaced the old tenants. 1892 Pall Mall G. 22 Sept. 4/3 ‘If the Government don't put 'em (the planters) out, we will’, said one of the men to me. 1894 Daily News 20 Apr. 4/7 What does Mr. Morley propose to do with the man who is settled on the farm—the ‘planter’, as he is called, a name of historical memory in Ireland? |
4. a. The proprietor or occupier of a plantation or cultivated estate, orig. in the W. Indies and the southern colonies of N. America; now used generally of such persons in tropical and subtropical countries. Often in Comb., as coffee-planter, cotton-planter, indigo-planter, sugar-planter, tobacco-planter.
| 1647 Ward Simp. Cobler (1843) 4 The Sub-planters of a West-Indian Island. 1660 Hickeringill Jamaica (1661) 19 Another singular benefit to the Planter, is the large numbers of wild Horses. 1706 Phillips, Planter,..also a Master, or Owner of a Plantation in the West-Indies. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 220 One of the Spanish Prisoners was a planter, as it is called in the West Indies, or a farmer, as we should call it in England. 1858 J. B. Norton Topics 269 A planter of the Sheveroy Hills wrote to me that he had detected some women stealing his coffee. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 209/2 Before leaving the hands of the planter, the cotton is subjected to a rough cleaning process. |
b. planter's (or planters') punch: a cocktail containing rum.
| 1924 A. Macmillan in Land of Abiding Sunshine, A ‘swizzle’ or ‘a planter's punch’ would very welcome be. 1935 S. Lewis It can't happen Here iv. 38 His reputation for research among planters'-punch recipes..might cause his defeat by the church people. 1958 G. Greene Our Man in Havana v. ii. 198 Have a planter's punch. They are good here. 1971 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Doctor Bird viii. 108, I don't suppose Beltanno has tasted planter's punch. 1978 G. Greene Human Factor v. iii. 285 What about a Planter's Punch? They do them OK here, so I'm told. |
5. One who forms, owns, or maintains oyster-beds.
| 1892 Law Times XCII. 177/2 Mr. Williamson, a very large oyster planter and dealer in oysters. |
6. Austral. slang. One who steals and hides cattle: see plant v. 8.
| 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xxv. III. 54 What's a little money..if..your children grow up duffers [sc. cattle-duffers] and planters? |
7. Newfoundland. The owner of fishing or shipping ‘plant’: see quots.
| 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), Planter,..in Newfoundland, a person engaged in the fishery. 1883 A. Shea Newfoundland Fisheries 10 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.) The sailing vessels were in a large degree the property of resident ‘planters’, whose earnings helped to swell the common wealth. 1895 R. G. Taber in Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 19/2 Over one-half of these Labrador-going fishermen are what are termed ‘planters, sharesmen and crews’... A ‘planter’ may either be the owner of a ‘plant’, speculating on his own account, or an agent in charge of a merchant's plant. |
II. Of things or beasts.
8. a. An implement or machine for planting or sowing seeds: often in Comb., as corn planter, cotton-seed planter, potato planter.
| 1850 Rep. U.S. Comm. Patents 1849 i. 151 Having thus fully described my improved grain and seed planter. 1856 Engineer I. 14/1 The accompanying engravings represent..improvements in hand corn planters. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. 25/1 Seed-planter..Sugar-cane planter. 1939 W. Faulkner Wild Palms 65 For seven years now he had run his plough and harrow and planter within the very shadow of the levee. 1950 [see bagger b]. |
b. A pot, tub, or other container for growing or displaying plants. orig. U.S.
| 1959 in Webster Add. 1966 ‘L. Holton’ Out of Depths viii. 72 The brick planters facing the ocean were gay with blossoms. 1968 Washington Post 3 July a24/8 (Advt.), Distinctive redwood planter at savings! 1969 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 5 Oct. 3/3 On the foundations of the cabin there is now a summer patio with brick planters made from the cabin chimney. 1973 Center City Office Weekly (Philad.) 9 Oct. 10/4 Cream scuttle... Can be used as a planter, or for artificial flowers. |
9. U.S. A snag formed by a tree-trunk embedded in a more or less erect position in a river.
| 1802 A. Ellicott Journal (1803) 123 From the mouth of the Ohio..it is not safe to descend the river in the night, unless the boat be uncommonly strong, on account of the sawyers and planters. 1812 Brackenridge Views Louisiana (1814) 43 In time, the trees thus fallen in, become sawyers and planters; the first..named from the motion made by the top when acted upon by the current, the others are the trunks of trees of sufficient size to resist it. 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), Planter,..the most dangerous among the ‘snag and sawyer’ family, to which vessels navigating the Western rivers are exposed. 1884 T. W. Higginson in Harper's Mag. June 125/1 Their talk was of the dangers of the river; of ‘planters and sawyers’. |
10. Pugilistic slang. A blow planted, a well-directed blow: cf. plant v. 7.
| 1821 Sporting Mag. VIII. 234 Smith put in a dreadful planter on Powell's throat. |
11. colloq. A horse that has the habit of refusing to move.
| 1864 Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 140 Mofussil horses..are incorrigible planters, considering it essential to their dignity to stand perfectly still for ten minutes after they have been put between the shafts. |
Hence ˈplanterdom, the class or social order of planters or owners of plantations in America, the West Indies, etc.; ˈplanterly a., befitting a planter (in sense 4); ˈplantership, the office or condition of a planter.
| a 1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) 379 That God should bestow the grace of Apostleship and Plantership upon him rather then upon Apollo. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XV. 793/1 He [James Ramsay] stood, in opinion, a rebel against the interest and majesty of plantership. 1827 Ld. Brougham in Life & Lett. Z. Macaulay (1900) 445 That heathenly and planterly and almost slave-trading speech. 1838 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XVII. 778/2 In the West Indies, plantership denotes the management of a sugar plantation. 1861 Russell Diary North & S. (1863) I. 186 Meeting only two or three vehicles containing female planterdom on little excursions of pleasure or business. |