Forms: 3 bowiare, 5 bowȝere, bowyere, 6 boier, bowier, 7 boweyer, 6– bowyer. [f. BOW sb. + -YER: cf. lawyer.]
1. One who makes, or trades in, bows.
1297. R. Glouc., 541. The bowiares ssoppe hii breke & the bowes nome ech on.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 46. Bowȝere [1499 bowyere)] arcuarius.
1514. Fitzherb., Justyce Peas (1538), 92. Every boier make … two bowes of elme.
1544. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 20. No man will be offended—excepte it be summe fletchers and bowiers.
1697. View of Penal Laws, 8. Concerning Bowyers and the making and keeping of Bows.
1862. Marsh, Eng. Lang., xii. 182. The arrow-makers, or fletchers … had as full a vocabulary as the bowyers.
2. A bowman, an archer. Also attrib.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 46/1. Bowȝere … architenens.
1725. Pope, Odyss., VIII. 260. Who boldly durst defy the Bowyer God.
1808. Scott, Marm., II. xv. His Norman bowyer band.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. v. 156. The bowyer-god, Apollo.
