souter Now Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈsuːtə(r))
Forms: α. 1 sutere, 3 sutare, 4–5, 8–9 sutor (5 sutore), 6 sutour, 8 suter; 4, 9 sutter. β. 4 soutere (zout-), 4– souter (6, 9 soutter, 9 sooter); 5 soutare, 5– soutar (9 sootar); 9 soutor. γ. 4–5 sowtere, 4– sowter (6 sowtter); 5 sowtare, 5–6 sowtar (6 sowttar).
[OE. s{uacu}tere, ad. L. sūtor shoemaker, f. suĕre to sew, stitch. Of the same origin are OHG. sûtâri (MHG. sûter), ON. s{uacu}tari (MSw. sutare, MDa. sutæræ), NFris. süter, sütjer.]
1. A maker or mender of shoes; a shoemaker or cobbler.
Also spec. ‘one who makes brogues or shoes of horse-leather’ (Jamieson, 1808). In the 16th and 17th cent. the word is freq. used with depreciatory force, esp. to denote a type of workman of little or no education.
| α c 1000 ælfric Saints' Lives xv. 23 Sum sutere siwode þæs halᵹan weres sceos. a 1225 Ancr. R. 324 A wummon þet haueð forloren hire nelde, oðer a sutare his el. 1379 Poll-tax W. Riding in Yorks. Archæol. Jrnl. V. 17 Adam Wild' Sutter. 1474 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 38 Item gevin to Hud sutor, for the Quenis schoune. a 1682 Sempill Blythsome Wedding 13 And there will be Sandie the sutor. 1725 Fam. Dict. s.v. Lithotomy, This we in England call Cutting upon the Gripe, and is the Method our Suters always cut by. 1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun ii. xxiii, Jock Willison, a sutor bred. 1817 Lintoun Green 6 The Selkirk Sutors aff their stools..In dirt haste raise. |
| β 1340 Ayenb. 66 More zuyfter þanne arwe ulyinde and more boryinde þanne zouteres eles. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 518 Som men seide that this Harold Harefote was a souters sone. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1585 Sadlers, souters, Semsteris fyn. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 208 A soutare, or a skynnare, or a tailloure. c 1566 Merie Tales of Skelton S.'s Wks. 1843 I. p. lxv, In the parysshe of Dys..there dwelled a cobler, beyng halfe a souter. 1584–7 Greene Carde of Fancie Wks. (Grosart) IV. 102 If Appelles..suffer the greasie Souter to take a view of his curious worke. a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 488 How can it but be a maine absurdity, that a Cooke, a Currier, a Souter, a Potter..should therefore be accounted noble? 1791 Burns Tam o' Shanter 41 And at his elbow, Souter Johnny. Ibid. 49 The Souter tauld his queerest stories. 1829 Scott Jrnl. II. 217, I..tugged as hard as ever did soutar to make ends meet. 1880 J. F. S. Gordon Chron. Keith 74 Coopers, Sooters, Sweetie-Wives, and Buckie Dulse-Wives, &c. |
| γ c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's Prol. 50 The devyl made..of a sowter, schipman or a leche. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 307 A poore sowtere fondede to teche a chouȝh to..seie þe same salutacioun. a 1400 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 359 Euerych sowtere þat makeþ shon of newe roþer leþer. 1454 Paston Lett. I. 292 They took a man of Stratford, a sowter, and hys name ys Persoun. 1491 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 182 Til a sowtar that sewyt halk hwdis to the King. 1513 More Rich. III (1883) 79 And in a stage play all the people know right wel that he that playeth the sowdayne is percase a sowter. 1570 B. Googe Pop. Kingd. iii. (1880) 33 Masse brings in dayly gaine, as doth the Sowters arte at neede. 1602 Carew Cornwall 86 b, While an ignorant fellow of a sowter becomes a magistrate. 1646 Gataker Mistake Removed 22 We have, with Lucian's sowter, dreamed of a great feast. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 193/1 St. Crispin..the Patron of Sowters, Cordwiners and Shoe-makers Journey-Men. 1855 [Robinson] Whitby Gloss. s.v., He grins like an aud sowter. |
| transf. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 43 Lauinius against Terence; Cratena against Euripides; Zoilus against Homer, [were] but ranke sowters. |
† b. Employed as a term of abuse.
Obs.| 1478 Maldon (Essex) Crt. Rolls Bundle 50, No. 8, Willelmus Cotyngham vocavit Johannem Baker horsoned souter contra statutum hujus burgi et dixit ‘Vos, horsoned suters, bere a rewle’. 1575 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 361 [They] came to the howse of..a cordwayner,..and..called him sowter, and..gave him..opprobrious words. a 1585 Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 747 Creishie soutter, shoe cloutter, minch moutter! |
2. attrib. and
Comb., as
souter-craft,
souter-like adj.| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxvi. 122 Þai do all maner of craftez, þat es to say talyour craft and sowter craft and swilk oþer. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxvii. 46 Full sowttar lyk he wes of laitis. |
b. Special combs.:
souter's brandy, buttermilk;
souter's clod, a roll of coarse bread;
souter's end, a piece of resined twine.
| 1773 Edinb. Wkly. Mag. 9 Dec. 335 A souter's clod,..if not a second mess of porridge for dinner. 1790 Shirrefs Poems 245 Could he get clods and souter's brandy. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ch. xx, Ye will maybe have nae whey then, nor buttermilk, nor ye couldna exhibit a souter's clod? 1832 Vedder Orc. Sketches 110 A clarionet, beautifully enamelled with a kind of twine, called by the vulgar ‘Sutor's ends’. |
Hence
† ˈsouteress.
Obs.—1| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 315 Cesse þe souteresse [1362 þe souters wyf] sat on þe benche. |