Now Sc. and north. dial. Forms: α. 1 sutere, 3 sutare, 4–5, 8–9 sutor (5 sutore), 6 sutour, 3 suter; 4, 9 sutter. β. 4 soutere (zout-), 4– souter (6, 9 soutter, 9 sooter); 5 soutare, 5– soutar (9 sootar); 9 soutor. γ. 4–5 sowtere, 4– sowter (6 sowtter); 5 sowtare, 5–6 sowtar (6 sowttar). [OE. sútere, ad. L. sūtor shoemaker, f. suĕre to sew, stitch. Of the same origin are OHG. sûtâri (MHG. sûter), ON. sútari (MSw. sutare, MDa. sutæræ), NFris. süter, sütjer.]
1. A maker or mender of shoes; a shoemaker or cobbler.
Also spec. ‘one who makes brogues or shoes of horse-leather’ (Jamieson, 1808). In the 16th and 17th cent. the word is freq. used with depreciatory force, esp. to denote a type of workman of little or no education.
α. c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xv. 23. Sum sutere siwode þæs halʓan weres sceos.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 324. A wummon þet haueð forloren hire nelde, oðer a sutare his el.
1379. Poll-tax W. Riding, in Yorks. Archæol. Jrnl., V. 17. Adam Wild’ Sutter.
1474. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 38. Item gevin to Hud sutor, for the Quenis schoune.
c. 1682. F. Sempill, Blythsome Wedding, 13. And there will be Sandie the sutor.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Lithotomy, This we in England call Cutting upon the Gripe, and is the Method our Suters always cut by.
1808. J. Mayne, Siller Gun, II. xxiii. Jock Willison, a sutor bred.
1817. Lintoun Green, 6. The Selkirk Sutors aff their stools … In dirt haste raise.
β. 1340. Ayenb., 66. More zuyfter þanne arwe ulyinde and more boryinde þanne zouteres eles.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 518. Som men seide that this Harold Harefote was a souters sone.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1585. Sadlers, souters, Semsteris fyn.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 208. A soutare, or a skynnare, or a tailloure.
c. 1566. Merie Tales of Skelton, S.’s Wks. 1843, I. p. lxv. In the parysshe of Dys … there dwelled a cobler, beyng halfe a souter.
1584–7. Greene, Carde of Fancie, Wks. (Grosart), IV. 102. If Appelles … suffer the greasie Souter to take a view of his curious worke.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 488. How can it but be a maine absurdity, that a Cooke, a Currier, a Souter, a Potter … should therefore be accounted noble…?
1791. Burns, Tam o’ Shanter, 41. And at his elbow, Souter Johnny. Ibid., 49. The Souter tauld his queerest stories.
1829. Scott, Jrnl., II. 217. I … tugged as hard as ever did soutar to make ends meet.
1880. J. F. S. Gordon, Chron. Keith, 74. Coopers, Sooters, Sweetie-Wives, and Buckie Dulse-Wives, &c.
γ. c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeve’s Prol., 50. The devyl made … of a sowter, schipman or a leche.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 307. A poore sowtere fondede to teche a chouȝh to … seie þe same salutacioun.
a. 1400. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 359. Euerych sowtere þat makeþ shon of newe roþer leþer.
1454. Paston Lett., I. 292. They took a man of Stratford, a sowter, and hys name ys Persoun.
1491. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 182. Til a sowtar that sewyt halk hwdis to the King.
1513. More, Rich. III. (1883), 79. And in a stage play all the people know right wel that he that playeth the sowdayne is percase a sowter.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., III. (1880), 33. Masse brings in dayly gaine, as doth the Sowters arte at neede.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 86 b. While an ignorant fellow of a sowter becomes a magistrate.
1646. Gataker, Mistake Removed, 22. We have, with Lucian’s sowter, dreamed of a great feast.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 193/1. St. Crispin and Crispianus, the Patron of Sowters, Cordwiners and Shoe-makers Journey-Men.
1855. [Robinson], Whitby Gloss., s.v., He grins like an aud sowter.
transf. 1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 43. Lauinius against Terence; Cratena against Euripides; Zoilus against Homer, [were] but ranke sowters.
† b. Employed as a term of abuse. Obs.
1478. Maldon (Essex) Crt. Rolls Bundle 50, No. 8, Willelmus Cotyngham vocavit Johannem Baker horsoned souter contra statutum hujus burgi et dixit ‘Vos, horsoned suters, bere a rewle.’
1575. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 361. [They] came to the howse of … a cordwayner,… and … called him sowter, and … gave him … opprobrious words.
a. 1585. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 747. Creishie soutter, shoe cloutter, minch moutter!
2. attrib. and Comb., as souter-craft, -like adj.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxvi. 122. Þai do all maner of craftez, þat es to say talyour craft and sowter craft and swilk oþer.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxvii. 46. Full sowttar lyk he wes of laitis.
b. Special combs.: souter’s brandy, buttermilk; souter’s clod, a roll of coarse bread; souter’s end, a piece of resined twine.
1773. Edinb. Wkly. Mag., 9 Dec., 335. A souter’s clod,… if not a second mess of porridge for dinner.
1790. Shirrefs, Poems, 245. Could he get clods and souter’s brandy.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. xx. Ye will maybe have nae whey then, nor buttermilk, nor ye couldna exhibit a souter’s clod?
1832. Vedder, Orc. Sketches, 110. A clarionet, beautifully enamelled with a kind of twine, called by the vulgar ‘Sutor’s ends.’
Hence † Souteress. Obs.–1
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 315. Cesse þe souteresse [1362 þe souters wyf] sat on þe benche.
