Forms: 4 boteri, 5 boterie, botrie, botre, butry, 5–6 botry(e, 5–7 botery, 6 bottrye, buttrie, buttre, buttrye, 6–7 butterie, 6–8 buttry, 7 bottery, boutery, but(t)ery(e, buterie, buttrey, 6– buttery. [app. a. OF. boterie = bouteillerie (Godef.):—late L. botāria, f. bota, var. of butta cask, bottle; see BUTT sb.5 The transition from the sense of ‘store-room for liquor’ to that of ‘store-room for provisions generally’ is in accordance with analogy, but may have been helped by association with BUTTER sb.1]
1. A place for storing liquor; but the name was also, from an early period, extended to ‘the room where provisions are laid up’ (J.).
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 98. Whoso entre into ye boteri yer ye ale lytz.
1411. E. E. Wills (1882), 18. Botrie.
a. 1440. Ipomydon, 316. And to the botery he went anon…. He toke the cuppe of the botelere.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 45. Boterye, celarium, boteria, pincernaculum.
1484. Marg. Paston, in Lett., 881, III. 314. Some man … to kepe your botry, for the mane that ye lefte … seyth he hath not usyd to geve a rekenyng nothyr of bred nor alle tyll at the wekys end.
1530. Palsgr., 200/1. Bottrye, despence.
1570. Levins, Manip., 103. A Butterie, promptuarium.
1586. J. Hooker, Girald. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 138/1. His cellar doore was neuer shut, and his butterie alwaies open, to all commers of anje credit.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 102. Take them to the Butterie, And giue them friendly welcome euerie one.
1608. Armin, Nest Ninn., 8. [He] giues them each one a hand, and so takes them into the buttry to drinke.
1665. Pepys, Diary (1879), III. 212. Then down to the buttery, and eat a piece of cold venison pie.
1755. Smollett, trans. Quix. (1803), I. 158. For in their bags they had lost their whole buttery and provision.
1832. Scott, Woodstock, 180. When the pantry has no bread and the buttery no ale.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. 531. Regular officers of the buttery, the kitchen … and the like.
b. In the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge: The place where ale and bread, butter, etc., are kept. (The ‘residence’ of members of the college is recorded by the appearance of their names in the buttery-books.)
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1910. 4. Whoever gives notice of him, either at the Buttery of Christ-Church to the Butler of the Colledge, [etc.].
1688. Swift, Wks. (1841), II. 56. But [the College Steward is] always sworn brother in iniquity to the clerks of the buttery.
1710. Palmer, Proverbs, 210. To converse in the world requir’d somewhat more than to have heard a little talk about Aristotle and Cartes, or to have ones name in the butteries.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, xii. (1876), 141. I’ll send you in a luncheon as I go through the butteries.
1869. Rogers, in Adam Smith’s W. N., I. Pref. 7. During this time he drew his commons from the college buttery.
† c. The spirit of the buttery: a 16th-c. phrase for ‘the spirit of wine.’
1530. Palsgr., 591. I wene he be inspyred with the spyrites of the buttery.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, clxxxiii. 64 b. I shulde haue sayde afrayd of the spirite of the buttry, whiche be perylous beastes, for such spirites doth trouble a man so sore that he can not dyuers times stande vpon his legges.
1592. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., 15. His frisking penne began to play the sprite of the buttry.
2. Comb., as buttery-door; buttery-bar, a board or ledge on the top of the buttery-hatch, on which to rest tankards, etc.; buttery-book (at the Universities), the book in which are entered the names of the members of a college, and the account of their commons; buttery-hatch, the half-door over which the buttery provisions are served; buttery-worn a. nonce-wd. (see quot.).
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 933/2. The maior of Oxford kept the *buttrie bar.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. iii. 74. I pray you bring your hand to’th Buttry barre, and let it drinke.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xviii. ‘Mend your draught’ … ‘I know the way to the buttery-bar.’
a. 1672. Wood, Life (1848), 34. Munday he was entred into the *buttery-book … by Mr. Edw. Copley, fellow of that house.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 19, ¶ 2. There are of the Middle-Temple, including all in the Buttery Books, and in the Lists of the House, 5000.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xxxix. 214. The Master of the college sent his servitor to the buttery-book to sconce him five shillings.
1832. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), III. 73. Weekly accounts in the buttery-books.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 99. Thy *buttry doore I here not creake.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. vi. Bill pounced on the big table, and began to rattle it away to its place outside the buttery-door.
1614. T. Adams, Divell’s Banq., 207. Hee will turne out of his cast Seruitours … from the *Buttry-hatch to the Pulpit.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 37. A hall … with the dais, the screen, the gallery, and the buttery-hatch all perfect.
1885. Macm. Mag., Nov., 28/1. Old scouts …—mines of inconvenient memories, old, battered, *buttery-worn bodies.
