Teacher

sb. Forms: see TEACH v.; also 4 Sc. -ure, 5–6 -or, Sc. -our. [f. TEACH v. + -ER¹.]

  † 1.  That which shows or points out; an indicator; the index-finger. Obs. rare.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 308/314. The feorþe finguer hatte ‘techere,’ for þere-with men techez i-wis.

  2.  One who or that which teaches or instructs; an instructor; also fig.; spec. one whose function is to give instruction, esp. in a school.

13[?].  K. Alis., 17 (Bodl. MS.). For Caton seiþ, þe gode techer, Oþere mannes liif is oure shewer.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xl. (Ninian), 98. Scorne it ware gret to se Þe thechure suld vnkennand be.

1382.  Wyclif, Matt. xxii. 35. Oon of hem, a techer of the lawe, axede Jhesus, temptynge hym.

1439.  Coventry Leet Bk., 190. To sette hys chylde to skole to what techer off Gramer that he likyth.

1456.  Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 16. Fals prechouris and techouris of errouris.

1538.  Starkey, England, I. iv. 136. For lake of gud techarys and instructarys.

1662.  Playford, Skill Mus., I. xi. (1674), 48. Experience is the Teacher of all things.

1799.  Med. Jrnl., I. 302. The retirement of Dr. Matthew Baillie, as a teacher of anatomy.

1807.  Wordsw., Song Feast Brougham Castle, 162. His daily teachers had been woods and rills,… The sleep that is among the lonely hills.

1870.  Act 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75 § 3. The term ‘teacher’ includes … every person who forms part of the educational staff of a school.

1884.  H. Coxwell, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 533. The French are our acknowledged teachers in ballooning.

  b.  Formerly, in New England Congregational churches, One of several officers appointed to teach.

1834.  Barnes, On Romans xii. 7. The churches in New England had, at first, a class of men who were called teachers … distinct from the pastor.

  c.  Teacher’s node (Path.), name given to a chronic inflammation of the vocal chords, characterized by minute whitish nodules on the upper surface of the chords. (Cf. NODE sb. 3 a.)

1897.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 832. Chorditis tuberosa, or ‘singer’s nodule,’ or ‘teacher’s node,’ is a clinical variety of pachydermia.

  3.  attrib. and Comb., as teacher-habit, -student, -training; teacher-ridden adj.; teacher edition, an edition of a work prepared especially for the use of teachers.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Two Oxford Scholars, Wks. 1730, I. 11. They have been Teacher-ridden for many Years.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. i. Perhaps it scarcely required the teacher-habit to perceive that [etc.].

1894.  Westm. Gaz., 28 March, 2/2. Our only example of the teacher-training institution. Ibid. A certain number of teacher-students.

1900.  Stoddard, Evol. Eng. Novel, 63. A picture of the soul-life of the struggling teacher-governess of Haworth.

  Hence † Teacher v. Obs. rare, trans., to tutor, prompt, ‘coach’; Teacherdom, the community of teachers; Teacheress, a female teacher.

1619.  Visct. Doncaster, in Eng. & Germ. (Camden), 164. Finding him as I thinke … *teachered by some higher directions (whether it be of Rome or Spayne or both in one).

1883.  Our Famous Women, 60. About the year 1850 Susan B. Anthony hid her ferule quite away, and put off her laurel crown in *teacherdom.

1908.  Times, Lit. Supp., 6 Aug., 252/1. She ruled her staff and spread her unconscious influence throughout teacherdom.

1382.  Wyclif, Wisd. viii. 4. Forsothe the *techeresse [Vulg. doctrix] it [wisdom] is of the discipline of God.

1657.  J. Sergeant, Schism Dispach’t, 630. The word Mistress may signify … a Teacheress (as I may say) or one which instructs, and so is coincident with Magistra.