gardener
(ˈgɑːd(ə)nə(r))
Forms: 4–5 gardenere, 4–6 gardyner(e, 4–8 gardiner, 5 garthyner(e, 6–8 gardner, 4– gardener.
[a. ONF. *gardinier = OF. and mod.F. jardinier (12th c.), f. gardin, jardin: see garden n. and -er2. Cf. OHG. gartinâri (mod.G. gärtner).]
1. One who tends, lays out or cultivates a garden; spec. a servant employed to tend and cultivate a garden.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 17270 + 227 Scho [marie] wend not it had bene he, bot a gardiner. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 661 An ille tre may na gude fruyt bere, And þat knawes ilk gude gardynere. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xxvi. 563 Say me, garthynere, I the pray, If thou bare oght my lord away. 1601 Holland Pliny xx. v. II. 41 The Syrians are great Gardiners, they..bee most curious in gardening. 1662 Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 462 [He] lived as a gardiner with a certaine gentleman. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 282, I was told..that almost all the gardeners of South Britain were natives of Scotland. 1865 Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) II. 140, I have a gardener who..sees me gather a bunch of my own grapes without making a wry face. |
| fig. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 324 Our Bodies are our Gardens, to the which, our Wills are Gardiners. 16.. Howel (J.), The gardener may lop religion as he please. |
2. In names of plants:
gardener's delight,
eye,
Lychnis coronaria;
gardener's garters (see
quot. 1880).
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cxx. §2. 381 [The flowers of Rosecampion] were called the Gardners delight, or the Gardners eie. 1823 Corbett Petticoat T. I. 240 Would you like some slips of apple ringy..or gardener's garters, or bachelor's buttons? 1880 Britten & Holland Plant-n., Gardener's garters, the striped garden variety of Phalaris arundinacea. |
Hence
ˈgardeneress, a female gardener; also, a gardener's wife.
| 1647 W. Browne tr. Gomberville's Polexander i. 182 The fair Gardneresse, this while, held my arme. 1827 Carlyle Germ. Rom. III. 253, 270. 1893 Star 24 June 4/3 Good situations are always ready for good gardeneresses. 1896 Daily Tel. 23 Jan. 5/3 The first gardeneress Eve. |