musterern.1
/ˈmʌst(ə)rə/, U.S. /ˈməst(ə)rər/ΚΠ
c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 261 (MED) Whanne a man offriþ eny þing to god, þilk deede of offring is not ellis þan a presenting..of þe þing bifore god for þis entent, þat þe presenter or mustrer bringe himsilf into mynde þerbi.
2. A person who musters or gathers together people, etc.; one who is called to a muster. rare.
ΚΠ
1790 G. Colman Battle of Hexham i. 15 A soldier is a rare merry life! Here come two more musterers; troth we have need of 'em.
1850 H. Melville White-jacket xii. 61 The ‘steady-cooks’ on the berth-deck, the ‘steady-sweepers’, and ‘steady-spit-box-musterers’, in all divisions of the frigate.
3. Australian and New Zealand. A person employed to muster or round up livestock.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > animal keeping practices general > herding, pasturing, or confining > [noun] > droving > rounding up > person or persons
ranger1744
musterer1863
roundup1878
1863 E. C. Chudleigh Diary 19 Dec. in E. C. Richards Diary of E. R. Chudleigh (1950) 114 All the musterers dogs have come home.
1871 Lady M. A. Barker Christmas Cake in Four Quarters iv. i. 247 Of course Christmas Day would be a complete holiday, and we had invited shearers and musterers, and all the odd hands which flock to a station at shearing-time, to come up to our house.
1892 W. E. Swanton Notes on N.Z. ii. 97 To accomplish this [muster],..on large ‘runs’ additional hands called ‘musterers’ have to be engaged.
1947 P. Newton Wayleggo (1949) 12 The musterer's job is to muster the sheep off such country into the respective homesteads.
1961 B. Crump Hang on a Minute Mate 73 I'm short of a couple of musterers, if you're interested. Done any sheep work before?
1992 B. Anderson Portrait of Artist's Wife (1993) vii. 127 His longing to get down south and begin his life in the real world where the sky was endless and you could stand outside the musterers' hut at black midnight and snatch the stars from the sky.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† musterern.2
Obsolete. rare.
A person who whispers; a rumour-monger; a talebearer.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > keeping from knowledge > hidden or indirect meaning > [noun] > communicating indirectly > one who communicates indirectly
mustererc1450
whisterer1519
whisperer1547
insinuator1740
earwigger1793
c1450 (c1410) Dives & Pauper (Lichfield) (1976) i. 38 (MED) A musterer or whisterer is a preuy rowner and a preuy lyer; who is a dowbyl townged man.
1496 (c1410) Dives & Pauper (de Worde) v. iv. 199/2 What is susurro that is called a musterer. It is a preuy rowner, that pryuely telleth false tales amonges the people for to make dyscencyon.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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n.1c1443
n.2c1450