Forms: 4 travaillour, 4–6 travellour, -eiler, etc. (see TRAVEL v.); 6– traveller, 9 chiefly U.S. traveler. [agent-noun f. TRAVEL v.: see -ER2, and cf. TRAVAILER.] One who or that which travels.
1. A person who is traveling or going from place to place, or along a road or path; one who is on a journey; a wayfarer; a passenger.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxv. (Julian), 20. Sic hope in-to sancte Iulyane Þe traualouris þane had tane.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 82. Fyre, drink, nor meit, Nor nane vther eismentis for trauellouris behufe.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 51. Certane travelars will nocht begin thair jornay on the satterday.
a. 1591. H. Smith, Serm. (1637), 327. A traveller passeth from towne unto towne, untill he come to his Inne.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, XVI. 316. As wasps, provok’d by children in their play,… In swarms the guiltless traveller engage.
1828. Webster, Traveler.
1843. Miall, in Nonconf., III. 429. The traveler, however, had a Scotch tongue in his head.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, xx. (ed. 3), 203. The ‘Royal Forest Hotel’ offers many attractions as a traveller’s rest.
1889. ‘L. Carroll,’ Sylvie & Bruno Concl. (ed. 2), Pref. 10. As to such words as ‘traveler,’ I hold the correct principle to be, to double the consonant when the accent falls on that syllable: otherwise, to leave it single.
fig. 1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 7. Among oþere noble trauaillours of þe þre pathes.
1631. T. Powell, Tom All Trades, Title-p., An old Travailer in the sea of Experience.
1804. Wordsw., She was a phantom,’ iii. A Traveller between life and death.
b. = TRAMP sb.1 4 (now dial.); spec. in Australia: see quot. 1896. Also, a traveling showman.
1763. Gentl. Mag., Sept., 461/2. Mrs. Jewel … was robbed … in the middle of the day by some Irish travellers.
1825. Jamieson, Traveller, a beggar.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 243/2. There are many individuals in lodging-houses who are not regular patterers or professional vagrants, being rather, as they term themselves, ‘travellers’ (or tramps).
1896. Australasian, 8 Aug., 249/2 (Morris). These travellers lead an aimless life, wandering from station to station, hardly ever asking for and never hoping to get any work.
1904. A. Griffiths, 50 Y. Public Service, xxiii. 347. These ‘travellers’ or ‘foreigners’ as they were styled locally, were responsible for a great part of the serious crime of the neighbourhood.
1906. Gentl. Mag., July, 17. In some parts of the Midlands the tramp is generally known as the traveller.
c. transf. A sermon delivered by a preacher in various places on different occasions. colloq.
1892. Pall Mall G., 10 May, 6/2. This sermon … was what is known amongst students as a ‘traveller.’
1904. J. Wells, Life J. H. Wilson, xxii. 205. His sermon on this subject was one of his ‘travellers.’
2. spec. One who travels abroad; one who journeys or has journeyed through foreign countries or strange places.
1556. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., P. Giles to Buslyde (1895), p. xcvi. The very famous and renowmed trauailer Vlysses.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. iv. 18. When I was at home I was in a better place, but Trauellers must be content. Ibid. (1610), Temp., III. iii. 26. Trauellers nere did lye, Though fooles at home condemne ’em.
1667. Sprat, Hist. R. Soc., 411. Cæsar … had Conquer’d more Countries than most Travailers have seen.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Mar, 10 March. We travellers are in very hard circumstances…. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous.
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Seine, 94. Some readers will think we are drawing our traveller’s bow with a vengeance.
1885. Encycl. Brit., XIX. 404/1. Marco Polo (c. 1254–1324) the Venetian, the most famous perhaps of all travellers.
1890. Chambers’ Encycl., VI. 669/1. David Livingstone, missionary and traveller, was born at Blantyre … 1813.
1913. Maurice Baring, Lost Diaries, xvii. 177. The doctor … scoffed at the idea of the sea serpent, which, he said, was a travellers’ tale.
b. To play (also, slang, to tip) the traveller: ‘to tell wonderful stories, to romance’ (Grose); hence, with upon, to deceive, befool, impose upon: in allusion to the mendacious or incredible character ascribed to ‘traveller’s tales.’
1739. Bp. Herring, in J. Duncombe’s Lett. (1773), II. 133. I am a little afraid, if I should be particular in my description, you would think I am playing the traveller upon you; but indeed I will stick religiously to truth.
1762. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, vi. Aha! do’st thou tip me the traveller, my boy?
1796. in Grose’s Dict. Vulg. T. (ed. 3).
3. spec. (in full, commercial traveler: see COMMERCIAL 6): An agent employed by a commercial firm to travel from place to place showing samples of goods and soliciting custom.
1800. Hull Advertiser, 19 July, 2/4. That capital Inn … many years established as a Travellers’ House.
1819. Hermit in London, II. 186. Common bag-men styled travellers of the house of Messrs. So-and-So.
1830. N. S. Wheaton, Jrnl., 497. At the Inn … I found a number of commercial travellers.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 381/2. Some tallymen who keep shops have ‘travellers’ in their employ, some of whom have salaries, while others receive a percentage upon all payments.
1894. Times, 22 Jan., 13/4. Carpet travellers are now all out on their journeys, but are not sending in as many orders as could be wished.
4. a. A horse, or other beast of burden or draught, a vehicle, etc., that travels or goes along (fast, well, etc.). Cf. TRAVEL v. 3 e. b. Applied to birds making a long flight, or migrating.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 26. Dalascian Asses … are good travellers,… they will go thirty miles a day without any wearinesse.
1874. J. W. Long, Amer. Wild-fowl, i. 20–1. Frequently in spring continuous shooting may be had at ‘travellers,’ as they are termed by the hunters—i.e., ducks making long flights, often migrating.
1889. Pall Mall G., 21 Aug., 2/1. He stands 16 hands high, and looks every inch a traveller.
6. A piece of mechanism constructed to ‘travel,’ run, or slide along a support; as a traveling crane, an overhead truck, a movable bridge bearing a crab for lifting and transporting heavy objects from one part to another of an engineering workshop or shed, a traveling or moving platform, etc.
1842. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., V. 359/1. The ‘traveller’ … was moved forward from the other end of the dam.
1866. Cycl. Usef. Arts, I. 2/2. Four pairs of balks…, where travellers are attached for holding the carcasses.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 369. The current is then increased by sliding the traveller of the rheostat from its maximum to a lower value.
1898. Engineering Mag., XVI. 80. A traveller, or portable platform,… is hoisted out, run across, and raised to the proper level, forming a level gangway … for the transit of passengers and goods from one platform to the other.
b. Naut. An iron ring or thimble running freely on a rope, rod, or spar; in quot. 1882, a rope on which such a ring slides; also, a rope or rod along which a yard may slide.
1762–9. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 258. Some, travellers up the weather-back-stays send.
1790. Naval Chron., XXIV. 50. The hauling rope of the traveller got foul.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, Gloss., Traveller, an iron ring, fitted so as to slip up and down a rope.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 135. In sending the royal yard down … a weather top-gallant backstay can be used for a traveller.
1883. Kelly, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 449/2. A jib,… hooked to a ring, called a traveller,… is hauled out to the bowsprit by a tackle.
c. In ring-spinning, a metal ring or loop used to guide the yarn in winding it on the spindle.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 832. Messrs. Sharp,… of Manchester, exhibited a throstle spinning frame on the ‘ring and traveller’ principle.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., 1944/1. As the spindles revolve, the thread passing through the traveler revolves it rapidly, and the horizontal bar ascending and descending alternately winds the yarn regularly upon the spools.
1884. W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 167. The traveller … is to wind the yarn on to the bobbin and to affect the drag…. By reducing the size of the traveller the drag can be made exceedingly slight.
d. Theatr. The mechanism for flying fairies, angels, ghosts, etc., above the stage.
1859. Sala, Gaslight & D., ii. 21. You may see the wires or ‘travellers,’ used by ‘flying fairies.’
e. Angling. A tackle that permits the bait to travel or move down the swim. Also attrib.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, i. (1880), 49. This kind of fishing, which is called ‘traveller’ fishing (the float being the traveller). Ibid., iv. (1883), 42. Barbel are taken with the traveller in the Nottingham fashion.
8. attrib. and Comb., as traveler fishing, float (see 5 e), monk, vocation; traveler-like adj.
1832. J. P. Kennedy, Swallow B., ix. I have not been idle in my traveller-vocation.
1841. Richmond Palladium, 6 Feb., 2/1. He is described by the Vincennes Gazette as a loafer of the upper crust order, possessing a traveler-like suavity, common in Frenchmen.
1847. W. Cory, Lett. & Jrnls. (1897), 47. I felt more lively and traveller-like than I had before.
1907. T. C. Middleton, Geog. Knowl. Time Discov. Amer., 6. Cosmas Indicopleustes—the traveler-monk of Egypt [c. 500–47].
b. Combinations with traveler’s: traveller’s joy, a name (given by Gerarde) for the wild shrub Clematis Vitalba, from its trailing over and adorning hedges by the wayside; traveller’s palm, traveller’s troe, names for certain trees which yield water or sap sought after by travelers to allay thirst, as Ravenala madagascariensis (Urania speciosa), N.O. Musaceæ, a palm-like tree of Madagascar whose hollow leaf-sheaths contain a store of water.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. cccxi. 739. Decking and adorning waies and hedges, where people trauell, and thereupon I haue named it the *Traueilers Ioie.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Travailours-joy, a sort of Herb called in Latin Clematis.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), II. 500. Traveller’s-joy. Great Wild Climber. Virgin’s Bower. Honesty. Hedges and shady places, in calcareous soil.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 177. We also saw [in Venezuela] many specimens of the *travellers’ palm, each leaf of which … yields, when cut by the thirsty traveller, from half a pint to a pint of water.
1857. Gosse, Omphalos, vii. 148. One of the stateliest of plants,—the *Traveller’s Tree (Urania speciosa).
1883. Encycl. Brit., XV. 170/1. The traveller’s-tree (Urania speciosa), with its graceful crown of plantain-like leaves … supplying a quantity of pure cool water.
Hence Travel[l]eress (rare), a female traveler.
1820. Keble, in Coleridge, Mem. (1869), I. 99. A little sickliness now and then … on the part of some of my fellow-travelleresses.
1869. Daily Picayune, 29 Aug., 10/2. Lady Duff Gordon, the great English traveleress, is dead.
1886. Sat. Rev., 21 Aug., 253/1. A much more common figure is the merely wrong-headed and cantankerous traveller—and particularly travelleress.
