Forms: 5 custummere, costomer, 5–7 custumer, 6 customar, custymer, customyer, 7 custumier, 5– customer. [In senses 1 and 2, and in 6, a. late Anglo-Fr. custumer, med.L. custumārius = consuētūdinārius: see Du Cange. In the other senses the word appears to be an Eng. formation upon CUSTOM.]
† 1. One who acquires ownership by long use or possession; a customary holder. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 111. Custummere, custumarius, usucaptor.
† 2. An official who collects customs or dues; a custom-house officer. Obs.
[See CUSTOM sb. 4 1st quot.]
1448. Act 27 Hen. VI., c. 2. Chescun Custumer Countrollour Sercheour & Surveiour.
a. 1483. Liber Niger Edw. IV., in Househ. Ord., 27. Corouners, custumers, countrollers, serchers.
1486. Act 3 Hen. VII., c. 8. The Customer or Comptroller of the same Port.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), 11. He shall be made a common Customer … of Lin, Callis, or of Deepe.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark ii. 22. Sitting at the receipt of custome, for he was a publicane or customer.
1609. [see CUSTOM sb. 4].
1651. Bedell, in Fuller’s Abel Rediv., Erasmus (1867), I. 74. All the gold he brought with him … except five pounds, was seized … by the customers [at Dover].
1748. St. James’s Evening Post, No. 5982. Lord Petersham … to be Customer, Collector, etc., in the Port of Dublin.
3. ‘One who frequents any place of sale for the sake of purchasing’ (J.); one who customarily purchases from a particular tradesman; a buyer, purchaser. (The chief current sense.)
c. 1480. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 317. To wt-draw from yor M., ne from no brother of þe craft, any of ther costomers.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 119. I saye to my customers, and those that bye any horses of me.
1592. Greene, 3rd Pt. Conny-catch., 33. His shop very well frequented with Customers.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 192. No Milliner can so fit his customers with Gloues.
1745. De Foe, Eng. Tradesman (1841), I. viii. 59. Parcels fit to fill their shops, and invite their customers.
1834. Medwin, Angler in Wales, I. 222. The alehouse … had neither customers nor host.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., II. x. (1876), 259.
† 4. A person with whom one has dealings; a familiar associate or companion (of some one). Obs. (passing into sense 5).
1548. Hall, Chron., 153. The wagoner came to the gate, called the porter…. The porter (whiche wel knew the voice of his customer).
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 81. To his accustomed customers he gat.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., IV. iv. 63. You Minion you, are these your Customers?
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 2. Lazy ignorance, or patient idlenesse, the common customers of the clergy.
† b. A common woman, prostitute. Obs.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, V. iii. 287. I thinke thee now some common Customer. Ibid. (1604), Oth., IV. i. 123. I marry her! What? a customer!
5. colloq. A person to have to do with; usually with some qualifying adjective, as ugly, awkward, queer, rum, etc.; ‘chap,’ ‘fellow.’
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1590), 11. False witnes … is taken vp now for a custome of one lewd Customer.
1652. Heylin, Cosmogr., To Rdr. Such a Countrey-customer I did meet with one.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxviii. An thou meetest with ugly customers o’ the road.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. Queer customers those monks. Ibid., xx. A precious seedy-looking customer.
1864. [H. W. Wheelwright], Spring in Lapl., 185. Certainly, a bull elk is an awkward customer when brought to bay.
† 6. = CUSTOMARY sb., CUSTUMAL sb. Obs.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 331. That aide de Rançon (as it is calld in the Custumier of Normandie).
1771. Antiq. Sarisb., 29. From the Grand Customer of Normandy we learn, that Bordage was a base tenure.
