Also 6 swaner. [Partly reduced form of swannerd, SWANHERD, partly a. MDu. swanier swan-warden, with assimilation to sbs. in -ER1.] = SWANHERD.
1524. in Archaeologia (1812), XVI. 155. The King’s Swannerd, or his Deputy, shall give warning unto the rest of the Swanners, when that he … will go a rowing,… for to go a merkinge … of any other swans.
1555–6. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880), 260. Payed to swanners for there fee ijs. vjd.
1594–5. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), III. 596. [Five shillings] to a Swaner for bringing a swane mark.
1842. Gent. Mag., Jan., 45/2. The swan with two nicks, the way in which the swanner still marks his birds.
