[f. LAW sb.1 + GIVER. Cf. Icelandic lög-gjafari, Da. lovgiver.] One who gives, i.e., makes or promulgates, a law or code of laws; a legislator.
1382. Wyclif, Job xxxvi. 22. Lo! heȝe God in his strengthe, and noon to hym lic in lawe ȝiueres [Vulg. legislatoribus].
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 74. Not only is holi writ despicid bi þat sciens, & blasfemid, but God Himsilf þat is þe law ȝeuar.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. xxxiii. 22. The Lorde shalbe oure lawe geuer.
1597–8. Bacon, Ess., Honour (Arb.), 70. In the second place are Legislatores, Lawgiuers.
1611. Bible, Ps. lx. 7. Iudah is my Lawgiuer.
1689–90. Temple, Ess. Learning, Wks. 1731, I. 292. They are content Pythagoras should pass for a Law-giver, but by no means for a Philosopher.
1786. A. Gib, Sacred Contempl., I. iii. 36. The supreme Lawgiver is entitled to the absolute subjection of his reasonable creature.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 135. Minos appears in the … character … of a wise and just lawgiver.
1842. Miall, in Nonconf., II. 1. We bow to no law-giver in the church but Christ.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., VI. Index 510. [Sir Geo. Calvert] a wise and benevolent law-giver.
