Also 4–5 expowner, 5 expownder. [f. as prec. + -ER1.] One who expounds; an expositor. Occasionally transf. of a thing: That which serves to expound.
1388. Wyclif, Gen. xli. 7. He [Farao] sente to alle the expowneris of Egipt … and … he telde the dreem.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xii. 65. Alle expowners and glose ȝeuers to Holi Scripture.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. xxviii. 3. Saul had dryuen the soythsayers and expounders of tokens out of ye londe.
1565. Jewel, Repl. Harding, 120. The Custome and practise of the people, is the best expounder of the Lawe.
1786. Burke, W. Hastings, Wks. 1842, II. 115. Magistrates and expounders of the Mahomedan law.
1869. trans. Pouchet’s Universe (1870), 3. Our imagination, says Bonnet, one of the most zealous expounders of natural history, is equally confounded by what is infinitely great or infinitely small.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 6. The argument of which the Athenian is the expounder.
Hence † Expoundress, Obs. rare, a female expounder.
1604. Supplic. Masse-Priests, § 37. The Romish Church, whom they make chiefe expoundresse of scriptures.
