Forms: 5 coteler(e, cotteler, cut(t)eller, (cultelere), 5–6 cuteler, 6 cotelar, cuttelar, cutellar, cutlar, 5– cutler. [a. F. coutelier:—L. type cultellāri-us, f. cultellus, OF. coutel knife.] One who makes, deals in, or repairs knives and similar cutting utensils.
c. 1400. Beryn, 2297. The Cotelere … that made the same knyff.
c. 1430. Lydg., Hors Shepe & G., 130. Dagars wrought by the cutlers.
1538. Leland, Itin., V. 108. Ther be many Smithes and Cuttelars in Halamshire.
1592. Greene, 3rd Pt. Conny-catch., 23. One … came vnto a poore Cutler to haue a Cuttle made.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 53. An ordinary knife, which he bought of a common cutler for a shilling.
1723. Lond. Gaz., 6196/9. Edward Birch, late of Birmingham … Short-Cutler.
1884. W. H. Rideing, in Harper’s Mag., June, 81/2. Technically [at Sheffield] the cutler is the man who puts the knife together.
Hence Cutleress, Cutler-woman, a female cutler.
c. 1765. Flloyd, Tartarian T. (1785), 48/1. The cutleress was ready to die. Ibid., 45/1. The sequins the cutler-woman promised me.
