Also (5 -ir), 5–6 -our, 6 tribitour. [f. TRIBUTE v. (or ? sb.) + -OR, -OUR (after agent-nouns from L. or F.), and -ER1 (on English analogies). Cf. rare late L. tribūtor one who gives.]
† 1. One who pays tribute. Also fig. Obs.
1483. Cath. Angl., 393/2. A Tributir, tributarius.
1534. Whitinton, Tullyes Offices, III. (1540), 152. That the cytes that Lucius Scylla made fre … shulde be tributers agayne.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., xxiv. (1870), 181. I am a Venesien … For part of my possession, I am come tributor to the Turke.
1588. Parke, trans. Mendoza’s Hist. China, 60. The prouince of Santon 3. millions and 700. thousand tributers.
1596. Fitz-Geffrey, Sir F. Drake (1881), 70. The mighty Silver-river … His tributorie sandes to him reveal’d; Nor sdained it to be a tribitour, Vnto the Oceans mightie Emperour.
a. 1648. Ld. Herbert, Hen. VIII. (1683), 435. If any entered the said Forrests without a Token given (by some of the Forresters or Walkers of it) to let him pass, or unless he were a yearly Tributer or Chenser, he was forced to pay a grievous Fine.
† 2. A giver, bestower. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 50 b. Almightie God geuer & tributor of this glorious victory.
3. Mining. A miner who works ‘on tribute’: see TRIBUTE sb. 3 c.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 188. The Tributor … has several persons concerned with him. Ibid., 330/1. [see TRIBUTE sb. 3 a].
1855. J. R. Leifchild, Cornwall Mines, 147. The ore sold for £182:2:2, and, as the tribute was 7s. 6d. in the pound, the share for the tributers was £68:5:9.
1875. Melbourne Spectator, 29 May, 46/1. A fight between the few Europeans employed on the works and the Chinese tributers.
1877. Encycl. Brit., VI. 218/1. Capitalists, landowners, inventors, Cornish tributers … are all brought under the stimulating influence of self-interest.
1886, 1911. [see TRIBUTE sb. 3 a].
1902. Daily Record, 1 Oct., 4. The concessions by the late Boer Government … have got into hands so grasping that their excessive terms to tributors for water-rights and power have kept a large area of these fields fallow.
