teacher, n.
(ˈtiːtʃə(r))
Forms: see teach v.; also 4 Sc. -ure, 5–6 -ar, Sc. -our.
[f. teach v. + -er1.]
† 1. That which shows or points out; an indicator; the index-finger. Obs. rare.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 308/314 The feorþe finguer hatte ‘techere’, for þere-with men techez i-wis. |
2. a. One who or that which teaches or instructs; an instructor; also
fig.;
spec. one whose function is to give instruction,
esp. in a school.
| 13.. K. Alis. 17 (Bodl. MS.) For Caton seiþ, þe gode techer, Oþere mannes liif is oure shewer. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xl. (Ninian) 98 Scorne it ware gret to se Þe thechure suld vnkennand be. 1382 Wyclif Matt. xxii. 35 Oon of hem, a techer of the lawe, axede Jhesus, temptynge hym. 1439 Coventry Leet Bk. 190 To sette hys chylde to skole to what techer off Gramer that he likyth. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 16 Fals prechouris and techouris of errouris. 1538 Starkey England i. iv. 136 For lake of gud techarys and instructarys. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. i. xi. (1674) 48 Experience is the Teacher of all things. 1799 Med. Jrnl. I. 302 The retirement of Dr. Matthew Baillie, as a teacher of anatomy. 1807 Wordsw. Song Feast Brougham Castle 162 His daily teachers had been woods and rills,..The sleep that is among the lonely hills. 1870 Act 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75 §3 The term ‘teacher’ includes..every person who forms part of the educational staff of a school. 1884 H. Coxwell in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 533 The French are our acknowledged teachers in ballooning. |
b. Formerly, in New England Congregational churches, One of several officers appointed to teach.
| 1834 Barnes On Romans xii. 7 The churches in New England had, at first, a class of men who were called teachers..distinct from the pastor. |
c. teacher's node (
Path.), name given to a chronic inflammation of the vocal chords, characterized by minute whitish nodules on the upper surface of the chords. (
Cf. node n. 3 a.)
| 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 832 Chorditis tuberosa, or ‘singer's nodule’, or ‘teacher's node’, is a clinical variety of pachydermia. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
teacher-factory,
teacher-habit,
teacher-student,
teacher-trainee,
teacher-trainer,
teacher-training;
teacher-proof,
teacher-ridden adjs.; appositive, as
teacher-librarian; also pertaining to each element, as
teacher–pupil adj. (
cf. pupil–teacher s.v. pupil n.1 3 b);
teacher edition, an edition of a work prepared especially for the use of teachers;
teachers' aide, an assistant employed to help the teaching staff of a school in a variety of duties (see
quot. 1967).
| 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Connecticut Yankee x. 118, I had started a teacher-factory and a lot of Sunday-schools. 1900 Stoddard Evol. Eng. Novel 63 A picture of the soul-life of the struggling teacher-governess of Haworth. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. i, Perhaps it scarcely required the teacher-habit to perceive that [etc.]. 1975 Language for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xxi. 304 Except for the Teacher-Librarians' Certificate there have been few opportunities for teachers to acquire help in how to organise and manage a library. 1979 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts July 487/1 A simple handbook for those teacher-librarians in Commonwealth developing countries who are called on to undertake this duty without any previous experience. |
| 1964 P. Strevens Papers in Lang. (1965) ii. 32 It is sometimes necessary to prepare ‘teacher-proof’ materials, if it is known in advance that the proficiency of the teacher is not going to be up to the optimum required. 1965 M. Morse Unattached iv. 131 Despite the teacher-pupil relationship the worker could in no way afford to make the girls feel inferior to herself. 1977 New Yorker 19 Sept. 44/1 He is a warm, compassionate man, outside the private teacher–pupil relationship in music. |
| a 1704 T. Brown Two Oxford Scholars Wks. 1730 I. 11 They have been Teacher-ridden for many Years. |
| 1956 Sun (Baltimore) 17 Nov. 6/3 It is another thing when a teacher is also required to be clerk, accountant and nursemaid, as the Parent–Teacher Association of Howard Park Elementary School has recognized in its hiring of two teachers' aides. 1967 Children & their Primary Schools (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) I. vi. xxiv. 330 The type of help that is..given by teachers' aides, who ought to have equal status with nursery assistants.., falls into three kinds: (a) Help that amounts to an extra pair of hands for the teacher... (b) help..from those with special skills. This could be available for needlework, art and craft, handicraft... (c) supervising children after school hours while they are waiting for their parents. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 28 Mar. 2/2 A certain number of teacher-students. |
| 1959 Listener 12 Mar. 463/1 A graduate teacher-trainee. 1982 Underground Grammarian Nov. 6/2 He might actually decide to become a student of something rather than a teacher-trainee. |
| 1964 Economist 22 Aug. 709/3 Sending teachers, and teacher-trainers, to the country in question. 1977 P. Strevens New Orientations Teaching Eng. vi. 79 Many teacher-trainers regard statements of the kind ‘We concentrate on practical teaching—none of this theoretical nonsense!’ as if they were robust common sense. |
| 1894 Westm. Gaz. 28 Mar. 2/2 Our only example of the teacher-training institution. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female 456 Directed towards particular problems—adolescence, teacher-training, nutrition, housing. 1967 Listener 14 Sept. 351/2 You could go to a college of education—they used to be called teacher training colleges. 1975 Language for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xxiii. 331 Our Report emerges at a critical and uncertain time in the development of teacher training. |
Hence
† ˈteacher v. Obs. rare,
trans., to tutor, prompt, ‘coach’;
ˈteacherdom, the community of teachers;
ˈteacheress, a female teacher.
| 1619 Visct. Doncaster in Eng. & Germ. (Camden) 164 Finding him as I thinke..*teachered by some higher directions (whether it be of Rome or Spayne or both in one). |
| 1908 Times, Lit. Supp. 6 Aug. 252/1 She ruled her staff and spread her unconscious influence throughout *teacherdom. |
| 1382 Wyclif Wisd. viii. 4 Forsothe the *techeresse [Vulg. doctrix] it [wisdom] is of the discipline of God. 1657 J. Sergeant Schism Dispach't 630 The word Mistress may signify..a Teacheress (as I may say) or one which instructs, and so is coincident with Magistra. |