ˈhorse-coper, -couper
(-ˌkəʊpə(r), -ˌkaʊpə(r))
Also 7 -cooper, 8 -koper, 9 dial. -cowper.
[f. horse + coper1, couper. Practically, horse-couper is treated as a northern variant of horse-coper.]
A horse-dealer.
| α 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1695) 25 Some turnd Horse-Coopers, some pedlers. a 1734 North Lives I. 287 There were horsecopers amongst them. 1748 De Foes Tours Gt. Brit. (ed. 4) II. 397 (D.) There were not less than an hundred jockeys or horse-kopers, as they call them there [Penkridge, Staffs.] from London, to buy horses for sale. 1882 Pall Mall G. 2 June 4/2 Horse-copers..are singularly at one with respect to stolen nags. |
| β 1755 Johnson s.v. Horsecourser, The word now used in Scotland is horsecouper, to denote a jockey, seller, or rather changer of horses. 1814 Scott Wav. xxxix, I was bred a horse-couper, sir. 1847 J. Wilson Chr. North (1857) II. 25 Newcastle horse-cowpers, who laid their money thick. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. xiii, Moping at the taverns..with horse-coupers and idle company. |
So
ˈhorse-coping,
-couping n. and a., horse-dealing.
| 1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk II. 7 The mysteries of horse-couping, horse-chanting. 1861 G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. ii, The stables of a certain horse-coping worthy. 1882 Pall Mall G. 2 June 4/2 Three horses..carried south by a horse-coping gang. |