| 释义 |
▪ I. coper1|ˈkəʊpə(r)|
[f. cope v.3 + -er1.]
1. One who ‘copes’; a dealer, chapman.
1609Skene Reg. Maj. 152 Forebuyers of quheit, bear, and aites, copers, sellers, and turners thereof in merchandices. 1832L. Hunt Sir R. Esher (1850) 118 There is not a better caterer or coper of his birds, 'twixt this and the Land's End.
b. Often in comb., as horse-coper, herring coper, salmon-coper, † silver-coper (-cooper, -couper). See these words.
a1734North Lives I. 287 There were horsecopers amongst them. 1796Stedman Surinam II. xvii. 28 One Cordus..had been trepanned into the West India Company's Service by the crimps or silver-coopers as a common soldier. 1845New Statist. Acc. Scot., Berwicksh. 160 The fisheries are chiefly rented by Salmon Coopers in Berwick. 1891C. Bradley in Outdoor Games & Recr. xxii. 357 That old rascal Screwdriver, the pony coper.
c. spec. (= horse-coper). A horse-dealer.
1825C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 236 The old clerical's turned coper. 1864C. Clarke Box for Season I. 291 The young cavalry officer was a bit of a coper..and was not long in ascertaining that he had got hold of a circus-horse. 1882Pall Mall G. 2 June 4/1 The trade of the coper is all trickery.
2. Derbyshire Mines. ‘One who agrees to take or make a bargain to get [lead] ore:’ see cope v.3 4, cope n.3 3.
1802J. Mawe Min. Derbysh. Gloss. 1815Farey View Agric. Derbyshire I. 366 The miners who dig the Ore are usually called Copers, from their working at a certain Cope or price per Ton.
▪ II. coper2, cooper|ˈkəʊpə(r)|
[a. Fl. and Du. kooper, Fris. and LG. kôper, purchaser, trader, dealer, f. koopen to buy, deal, trade = G. kaufen, Eng. cheap v.
Usually spelt cooper in the newspapers 1881–84, but pronounced coper by the fishermen, and so spelt in the publications of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. In the memory of old smacksmen of Grimsby (as stated by Mr. J. F. Wintringham) the name goes back to 1854, when Flemish and Dutch koopers first began to frequent the fleets.]
A vessel fitted out to supply ardent spirits, etc. usually in exchange for fish, to the deep-sea fishers in the North Sea; a floating grog-shop.
The practice began in a comparatively innocent barter trade carried on by Dutch boats visiting the fishing fleets, when the latter fished in close to the land, off Camperdown and the Texel; but it led to the fitting out of ‘floating grog-shops’ to attend each fleet. Public attention was called to the demoralizing nature of the traffic in 1881, and it formed the subject of a convention between the British, German and Dutch governments in 1882, for the carrying out of which an Act of Parliament was passed in 1888.
1881Conference at the Hague, Sitting 8 Oct. (Blue Bk., Commerc. No. 24, 1882), The traffic carried on..by those [boats] known as ‘coopers’ or ‘bum-boats’. 1882Standard 28 Dec. 5/3 The Hollanders are..the chief offenders; but ‘coopers’ are also familiar in ports nearer home. 1884Rep. on N.S. Fisheries in Blue Bk., Commerc. No. 5 (1888) 12 The ‘coopers’ or floating grog-shops chiefly hail from German and Dutch ports..They trade in tobacco and spirits of vile quality..and latterly in immoral and obscene cards and photographs. 1887E. J. Mather Nor'ard of Dogger iii. 28 These Dutch copers ostensibly cruised with the English fleets for the purpose of selling tobacco. 1890Spectator 27 Sept. 414 The ‘coper’, or grog-ship, has been banished.
▪ III. coper, coperas, -ris
obs. ff. copper, copperas. |