purchaser
(ˈpɜːtʃɪsə(r))
Forms: 4 purchasour, 5 -oure, -owre, purchesur, 6 -asser, 6–8 -asor, 6– purchaser.
[ME., a. AF. purchasour, = OF. porchaceor, later pur-, pourchaseur, agent-n. from porchacier, pourchasser to purchase.]
† 1. One who acquires or aims at acquiring possessions; one who ‘feathers his nest’. Obs.
In quot. c 1386, many explain purchasour as ‘conveyancer’, which is possible; but cf. quot. 1591 and purchase v. 5 b, quot. 1623–33.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1105, Y se men þat purchasours are, Þat coueyte catel with sorwe & kare. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 318 A Sergeant of the Lawe..Of fees and robes hadde he many oon, So greet a purchasour was nowher noon; Al was fee symple to hym in effect; His purchasyng myghte nat been infect. c 1440 Partonope 6427, I haue lyued as a sowdyor A poure man but no purchasoure. 1591 Greene Disc. Coosnage (1592) 11 Think you some lawyers coulde be such purchasers, if al their pleas were short, and their proceedinges iustice and conscience? |
† b. One who procures or brings something about. Obs. rare—1.
| 1653 Whitfield Treat. Sinf. Men vi. 25 Is he not the Author and purchasor of peace? |
† c. Mining. See quot. 1747; cf. caver. Obs.
| ? 1556 in Pettus Fodinæ Reg. (1670) 95 That no Purchasors shall let or stop any Miners from any Wash-trough at any time. 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. s.v. Mineral time, Purcassers [are] Poor People that daily go to the Mines, with their Hammers, Bags, or Penny-wiskets, searching in the Deads that are daily drawn and tem'd on the Hillocks, for any Bits of Ore that they can find therein. Ibid., Also Purchasers are all to go away from the Works when that time is expired. |
2. Law. One who acquires land or property in any way other than by inheritance.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 9453 Also with purchasours ryȝt so hyt fareþ, Alle þat þey bygge, here eyrës bareþ. c 1540 in J. R. Boyle Hedon (1875) App. 71 Yf anye suche inherytor or purchessor absent them selfes [etc.]. 1642 tr. Perkins' Prof. Bk. viii. §539. 235 If husband and wife be joynt purchasers unto them and unto the heires of the husband of lands. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. xiv. 220 The first purchasor..is he who first acquired the estate to his family, whether the same was transferred to him by sale, or by gift, or by any other method, except only that of descent. Ibid. xv. 241 If I give land freely to another, he is in the eye of the law a purchasor. 1833 Act 3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 106 § 1 (Act for Amendment of Law of Inheritance), The Words ‘the Purchaser’ shall mean the Person who last acquired the Land otherwise than by Descent, or than by any Escheat, Partition, or Inclosure. |
3. One who purchases for money; a buyer.
| 1625 Massinger New Way ii. i, I must have all men sellers, and I the only purchaser. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 511 ¶4 The Purchaser..pays down her Price very chearfully. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 371 He was instantly discerned to be a fit purchaser of every thing that nobody else would buy. 1902 E. Banks Newsp. Girl 129 Plenty of things are not for sale until a purchaser comes. |