plantern.
/ˈplɑːntə/, /ˈplantə/, U.S. /ˈplæn(t)ər/ I. Senses relating to people.† 8. A person who deals fraudulently in works of art. Obsolete. rare.
1. A person who plants seeds, bulbs, etc.; (hence) a farmer, a cultivator of the soil, an agriculturist.
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the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > cultivation of plants or crops > [noun] > one who
planter1281
cropper1580
growera1687
raiser1707
vegetist1775
1281 in W. H. Hart & P. A. Lyons Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia (1893) III. 41 (MED) Henricus le Plaunter.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1969) Jer. xxxi. 5 Plaunten shul plaunteres [a1425 L.V. men plauntynge; L. plantantes].
a1425 Medulla Gram. (Stonyhurst) f. 58 Sator, a sowere or a plonter.
c1440 S. Scrope tr. C. de Pisan Epist. of Othea (St. John's Cambr.) (1970) 37 It is seide that the good spirite schulde be like to Isis, the which is a plantere [c1450 Longleat planter].
?a1500 Nominale (Yale Beinecke 594) in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 809/32 Plantator, a plantor.
1575 G. Fenton Golden Epist. f. 55v Fruites returne seedes to their planter.
1609 R. Johnson in P. Force Tracts (1836) I. 6. 21 All kinde of Artificers wee must first imploy, are Carpenters, Ship-wrights, Masons, Sawyers, Brickemakers, Bricklayers, Plowmen, Sowers, Planters, Fishermen, Coopers, Smiths, Mettel-men, Taylors, Turners, and such like, to make and fitte all necessaries, for comfort and use of the Colony.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 691 Chos'n by the sovran Planter, when he fram'd All things to mans delightful use. View more context for this quotation
1733 W. Hamilton To C'tess Eglintoun in A. Ramsay Poems 361 Or, with th' industrious planter, dost thou talk, Conversing freely in an evening walk?
1777 Farmer's Mag. Sept. 290 We divide our hands into four classes, which we term takers-up, pruners, carriers, and planters.
1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 393 Planter of hops not obliged to give more than twenty-four hours' notice of his intention to weigh.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits xi. 178 The virtues of pirates gave way to those of planters, merchants, senators, and scholars.
1908 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 12 Apr. When plants grow up reluctantly, only to die early, the planter is apt to think that the fault is in the seed; the chances are that the fault is in himself.
1981 Dict. National Biogr. 1961–70 at Nicholson, Sir Harold George The Nicolsons..jointly created out of practically nothing..one of the most beautiful and celebrated gardens in Great Britain. Whereas she was the planter, he was the designer.
2003 Calgary (Alberta) Herald (Nexis) 6 Dec. (Arts & Style section) 16 A young tree planter, Sharon, plants seedlings in an Ontario forest that has just been razed by a giant mechanical harvester.
2.
a. The founder of a colony; an early settler, a colonist; (in Ireland) an English or Scottish settler planted on forfeited lands in the 17th cent. Now historical.Chiefly with reference to the colonists of the plantations founded in North America.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > colonist or settler > [noun]
peopler1566
planter1587
plantator1632
colonist1658
populator1664
storer1690
settler1696
white settler1754
plantationite1756
colonizer1766
colonizationist1823
colon1860
homesteader1870
plantationer1888
1587 J. White Fourth Voy. in R. Hakluyt Principal Navigations (1889) XIII. 359 The 22 we came to an anker at an Island called Santa Cruz, where all the planters were set on land, staying there till the 25 of the same moneth.
1610 T. W. de la Warre Let. Sept. in A. Brown Genesis U.S (1890) I. 413 The first of Aprill I Departed the Cowes in the Ile of Wight with 3. good shippes, and in them an 150 persons to land as Planters in Virginia.
c1612 W. Strachey Hist. Trav. Virginia (1953) ii. 147 The Governour..brought all the Planters and Provisions a shore, where they beganne to fitt and accommodate themselues.
1620 Horæ Subseciuæ 533 They seuerally giue different orders, and customes, according to the intent and purpose of the first Planters.
1657 O. Cromwell Speech 21 Apr. We have settled almost all the affairs in Ireland; the rights and interests of the soldiers there, and of the planters and adventurers.
1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 334 The Planters were the Phocæans, who were driven out of Asia by Harpagus.
1710 in Rec. Early Hist. Boston 157 The first Planters and Inhabitants..did at their first Settlement..Sett apart, that Peice or parcell of Ground, now Known by the name of the Old burying place in Boston.
1764 T. Hutchinson Hist. Colony Massachusets-Bay, 1628–91 417 One great design of the first planters of the Massachusetts colony [was] to obtain..the liberty of worshipping God.
1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia I. ii. vi. 306 The law of Gavil-kind, which the original planters had carried with them from Britain.
1868 E. Edwards Life Sir W. Ralegh I. xxi. 479 The written records of..Ralegh's persistent labours as a planter are numerous.
1950 W. R. Bird This is Nova Scotia ii. 62 Through this belt of country [sc. Annapolis] the New Englanders came, the Planters as they were called, in 1761–2.
1995 K. Toolis Rebel Hearts (1996) ii. 81 It was a rage against the British and their Protestant Planters that reached back across the centuries.
b. In Ireland: a person settled in the holding of an evicted tenant. historical.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > colonist or settler > [noun] > other specific colonists or settlers
pilgrim1630
originals1703
old settler1744
Big Knife1750
out-settler1755
provincial1756
Boer1776
freeman1791
Pilgrim Fathers1799
back-settler1809
undertaker1819
oecist1846
Argonaut1848
Canterbury pilgrim1850
poblador1850
shagroon1851
forty-niner1853
planter1858
inside squatter1881
local white1888
Minyan1928
1858 J. Grant Mem. James, Marquis of Montrose xvii. 129 As the rebellion spread,..it was agreed to send over 10,000 infantry to aid the English troops, and defend the Scottish planters in Ulster.
1861 Proc. & Papers Kilkenny & S.-E. of Ireland Archaeol. Soc. 332 In both these plantations the Irish were forbidden, by plantation rule, ever to purchase or to reacquire any of the lands set out to the new English planters.
1890 Daily News 18 June 3/5 Mr. McCarthy gave..the reason for this refusal to sanction sales under the Ashbourne Act to the planter or emergency tenants who replaced the old tenants.
1894 Daily News 20 Apr. 4/7 What does Mr. Morley propose to do with the man who is settled on the farm—the ‘planter’, as he is called, a name of historical memory in Ireland?
1907 Westm. Gaz. 21 Aug. 5/1 The Chief Secretary, dealing with the vexed problem of the ‘planter’, said he saw no reason for any further provision against unnecessary disturbance than was contained in the original Bill.
1994 M. Perceval-Maxwell Outbreak Irish Rebellion 1641 Introd. 23 In failing to convert the Irish, the church became content to serve the needs of the planter, therefore ensuring its inability to reach into the majority of the population who associated it with an alien and hostile culture.
2018 C. McNamara War & Revol. West of Ireland i. 28 The tenants' campaign centred around the northern planters who had been brought in to replace the evicted tenants and occupied enlarged holdings.
3.
a. Originally in the Caribbean and the southern United States: the owner or manager of a plantation or large estate. Frequently with modifying word.
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the world > food and drink > farming > farmer > [noun] > planter
planter1619
cacao planter1821
1619 Jrnls. of House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1619–1658/9 (1915) 2 Aug. 11 Provided first that the Cape Marchant do accept of the Tobacco of all and everie the Planters here in Virginia.
1647 N. Ward Simple Cobler Aggawam 4 The Sub-planters of a West-Indian Island.
1661 E. Hickeringill Jamaica 19 Another singular benefit to the Planter, is the large numbers of wild Horses.
1725 D. Defoe New Voy. round World ii. 38 One of the Spanish Prisoners was a Planter, as 'tis call'd in the West-Indies, or a Farmer as we should call it in England.
1766 S. Johnson Let. 13 Aug. (1992) I. 269 The Planters of America a Race of Mortals whom I suppose no other Man wishes to resemble.
1812 J. Melish Trav. in U.S.A. I. 238 The great mass of the population in Virginia are farmers, or, as they are termed here, planters.
1858 J. B. Norton Topics for Indian Statesmen 269 A planter of the Sheveroy Hills wrote to me that he had detected some women stealing his coffee.
1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator (new ed.) IV. 209/2 Before leaving the hands of the planter, the cotton is subjected to a rough cleaning process.
1933 Sun (Baltimore) 20 Apr. 3/1 A tentative settlement of difference between rival Tallahatchie and Sunflower county planters and share croppers, which reached a climax in the dynamiting of the Chute Bridge Levee yesterday, was reported to have been reached tonight.
1974 Nation (Barbados) 10 Mar. 2/1 The general run of planters in Barbados, (and I use that word as a generic term) have not been considerate enough of the people who toil to prepare the soil and plant the food we need.
1989 P. Dally Elizabeth Barrett Browning p. i Among the West Indian planters, the Barretts had a reputation for treating their slaves better than most.
b. planter's punch n. (also planters' punch) a cocktail containing rum, fruit juices, and sugar.In quot. 1869, probably showing the genitive of West India Planter plus Punch.
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the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > distilled drink > cocktail > [noun] > rum cocktail
bumbo1701
rum cocktail1841
silky1852
planter's punch1878
Cuba libre1898
daiquiri1920
piña colada1920
presidente1928
mojito1934
zombie1938
mai tai?c1950
Dark and Stormy1983
1869 W. Terrington Cooling Cups & Dainty Drinks 211 Tolpsey's Account of a West India Planter's Punch... Our punch-maker then commenced operations,..having extracted from his secret store a bottle of his matchless rum.]
1878 Fun 4 Sept. 102/2 Planter's Punch! A West Indian Recipe.
1915 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 4 Aug. 13/7 We shall have an excellent Planters' Punch made of the Sugar and Rum which Myers sell, and the Limejuice which they buy, and the water which we get from the Kingston General Commissioners.
1958 G. Greene Our Man in Havana v. ii. 198 Have a planter's punch. They are good here.
2013 W. C. McCleat Vintage Cocktails 121 Planter's Punch actually originated on the rum-producing island of Jamaica.
4. The founder or popularizer of a church, religion, institution, etc.
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the world > existence and causation > causation > initiating or causing to begin > [noun] > institution or founding > one who or that which founds or establishes
aginnera1300
founder1340
grounder14..
foundatorc1425
stablement1481
stablisher1535
institutera1538
patriarcha1538
institutor1546
erector1548
inventor1548
fundatrix1549
upsetter1581
establishera1600
co-founder1605
co-foundress1631
planter1632
institutive1644
instaurator1660
institutrix1706
institutress1788
godfather1830
founding father1903
founder member1909
1632 R. Sanderson 12 Serm. 287 St. Peter, and St. Paul, the two chiefest planters of the churches.
1710 H. Prideaux Orig. & Right Tithes ii. 36 The Ministers of the Gospel who were to be sent out to be the first Planters of it.
1723 H. Rowlands Mona Antiqua Restaurata xi. 141 One of other of those holy Men, those devout Planters of Christianity, did come to this Isle of Mona.
1870 E. Arber Introd. Ascham's Scholem. Introd. §5 These Planters of the ancient Literature in England hoped well of their Mother Tongue.
1897 Dict. National Biogr. at Roby, William In Nightingale's volumes his name constantly appears as a planter of new churches.
1991 Independent 25 Mar. 4/4 [Dr. Carey] will need to ensure that the ‘planters’ do not plant into parishes which do not want them.
5. Newfoundland. An established fisherman who owns fishing premises, vessels, or equipment, and so usually engages a crew to work for him on a share basis.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > ship-owning > [noun] > ship-owner
ship-lordc1050
ship-owner1530
planter1663
ship-holder1828
employ1840
1663 J. Yonge Jrnl. (1963) (modernized text) 55 We presently hired a sloop from a planter and sent the mate with divers men alongshore to get possessions, as they call it... The planters were Mr. John Kirk, 3 boats, Richard Pooly, 1 boat. [etc.].
1690 J. Child Disc. Trade x. 202 The Planters and Boat-keepers are generally such as were bred, and became expert at the cost of the Owners of Fishing Ships.
1720 ‘S. Fisher’ Britain's Golden Mines 64 No Planter, or other Person, or Persons whatsoever, do lay any Seynes or Nets in or near any Harbour in Newfoundland, whereby to take the Spawn or young Fry of the Poor-John.
1771 G. Cartwright Jrnl. 7 Aug. (1792) i. 156 I sent Shuglawina on shore there, with a letter to Guy's father, who is a planter, lives in that place, and keeps several cows.
1794 A. Thomas Newfoundland Jrnl. (1968) v. 78 In Queen Anne's reign the Fishermen and Planters of this and the neighbouring Bays sent home to England complaints of a want of protection.
1820 in C. R. Fay Life & Labour in Newfoundland (1956) viii. 138 Almost every fifth fisherman is what is termed a ‘Planter’, particularly in the outports of the Island.
1883 A. Shea Newfoundland Fisheries 10 The sailing vessels were in a large degree the property of resident ‘planters’, whose earnings helped to swell the common wealth.
1909 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Jan. 24/2 The ‘planter’ (the middle-man between the fishermen and the merchants of St. Johns).
1937 P. K. Devine Folklore of Newfoundland 37 Those immigrants who settled in Newfoundland and had means enough to build their own fishing rooms, ‘ship’ men, and issue supplies to other fishermen, were called ‘planters’.
1958 Evening Telegram (St. John's, Newfoundland) 5 May 3/3 Young Newfoundlanders are now shipping with Labrador skippers... These ‘planters’..need workers to make up their crews on share and wage basis.
2004 St. John's (Newfoundland) Telegram (Nexis) 26 June b1 He was a planter, a fisherman who owned land. Well off, he even had servants who used the back stairs.
6. U.S. regional (chiefly eastern). In full oyster planter. A person who establishes, owns, or maintains oyster beds.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > fish-keeping, farming, or breeding > [noun] > breeding oysters > oyster-breeder
oysterman1305
planter1855
ostreiculturist1866
oyster farmer1866
oyster culturist1882
1855 N.-Y. Daily Times 23 Jan. 2/6 The oyster catchers have been arrested by the oyster planters, and the lawyers are going to make money out of both parties.
1878 St. Joseph (Mich.) Traveler-Herald 23 Mar. The legal right of an oyster planter to the ground he cultivates and the crop he produces should be put beyond dispute.
1892 Law Times 92 177/2 Mr. Williamson, a very large oyster planter and dealer in oysters.
1941 Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune 24 Apr. 13/2 Mr. Winant's father's father was an oyster planter, out along the Jersey shore of the bay.
1991 Washington Post (Nexis) 13 Apr. b4 He was born in Snow Hill on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where his family had been oyster planters, hauling oysters from the James River to Chincoteague Bay.
2003 Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch (Nexis) 6 Dec. a9 My grandfather was a farmer and oyster planter.
7. slang. A person who hides stolen goods; esp. (Australian) one who steals and hides cattle. Cf. plant v. 4d.
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the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > stealers of animals > [noun] > of cattle
dunaker1668
cattle-stealer1803
duffer1844
cattle-lifter1860
cattle-thief1862
rustler1878
planter1890
waddy1897
cattle-rustler1903
1859 G. W. Matsell Vocabulum Planter, one who hides stolen property.
1881 A. Trumble Slang Dict. N.Y., London & Paris Planter, one who hides stolen property.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer III. xxv. 54 What's a little money..if..your children grow up duffers [i.e. cattle-thieves] and planters?
1941 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang 55 s.v. Planter, a cattle thief.
1955 N. Pulliam I traveled Lonely Land 384 Plant, to hide sheep or cattle which have been stolen. Planter, one who does so.
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1906 Chambers's Jrnl. May 390/1 The ingenuity of ‘planters’ has..to be devoted to manufacturing histories relating to old copies [of Italian paintings].
II. Senses relating to things and animals.† 10. slang. A blow, a well-directed hit. Cf. plant v. 9a. Obsolete. rare.
9. U.S. regional (chiefly Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley). A snag formed by a tree trunk embedded in a more or less erect position in a river.
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the world > the earth > water > body of water > channel of water > [noun] > obstruction in > specific
planter1802
snag1807
rack-heap1850
tacouba1870
1802 A. Ellicott Jrnl. (1803) 123 From the mouth of the Ohio..it is not safe to descend the river in the night, unless the boat be uncommonly strong, on account of the sawyers and planters.
1814 H. M. Brackenridge Views Louisiana i. iv. 43 In time, the trees thus fallen in, become sawyers and planters; the first..named from the motion made by the top when acted upon by the current, the others are the trunks of trees of sufficient size to resist it.
1884 T. W. Higginson in Harper's Mag. June 125/1 Their talk was of the dangers of the river; of ‘planters and sawyers’.
1888 S. S. Forman Narr. of Journey down Ohio & Mississippi in 1789–90 44 We discovered that we were fast upon a planter—that is, the body of a tree firmly embedded in the river bottom.
1941 F. L. Dorsey Master of Mississippi 25 Enormous and deeply embedded ‘planters’ stretched their stout limbs under water, threatening to rake unwary craft.
1987 J. McPhee Atchafalaya in Control of Nature (1989) 34 Navigation was inconvenienced..by..huge trees that had drifted south over the years and become stuck in various ways. One kind was rigid in the riverbed and stood up like a spear. It was called a planter.
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the world > movement > impact > striking > [noun] > a stroke or blow > specific on a person > well-aimed
planter1821
1821 Sporting Mag. 8 234 Smith put in a dreadful planter on Powell's throat.
11.
a. An implement or machine for planting or sowing seeds. Frequently with modifying word.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > sowing and planting equipment > [noun] > apparatus for sowing
sower1728
seeder1759
planter1850
grass seeder1854
scatterer1868
broadcaster1934
1850 Ann. Rep. Commissioner Patents 1849: Arts & Manuf. 151 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (31st Congr., 1st Sess.: House of Representatives Executive Doc. 20, Pt. 1) VI Having thus fully described my improved grain and seed planter.
1874 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. I. 25/1 Seed-planter..Sugar-cane planter.
1939 W. Faulkner Wild Palms 65 For seven years now he had run his plough and harrow and planter within the very shadow of the levee.
1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Apr. 361/1 Mechanisation [for potato harvesting] in the form of mechanical planters, diggers, and in some cases baggers.
1990 Case IH Farm Forum Spring 24/1 The most dramatic uses of pneumatics to date are evident on planters, seeders and custom fertilizer equipment.
b. Originally U.S. A pot, tub, or other container for growing or displaying plants.
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the world > food and drink > farming > gardening > equipment and buildings > [noun] > flower-pot or tub
garden pot1592
flowerpot1598
pot1615
forty-eight1808
jardinière1841
thumb-pot1851
flower-box1876
window box1895
planter1948
1948 Berkshire Evening Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.) 18 June 7/2 Copper wall planter... We've just received still another shipment of these bright copper wall planters.
1966 ‘L. Holton’ Out of Depths viii. 72 The brick planters facing the ocean were gay with blossoms.
1973 Center City Office Weekly (Philadelphia) 9 Oct. 10/4 Cream scuttle... Can be used as a planter, or for artificial flowers.
2002 Built It Nov. 20/1 Garden antiques, ornaments, sundials, troughs, planters, urns, millstones, staddle stones, pumps.
12. colloquial. A horse that has the habit of refusing to move. Now rare.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by speed or gait > [noun] > refusing to go on > that refuses to go on
jib1843
jibber1847
planter1863
1863 G. O. Trevelyan Lett. from Competition Wallah vi, in Macmillan's Mag. Nov. 20/1 Mofussil horses..are incorrigible planters, considering it essential to their dignity to stand perfectly still for ten minutes after they have been put between the shafts.
1865 R. Henning Let. 18 Feb. (1966) 193 The pair of horses that Biddulph bought..are most inveterate ‘planters’, for Mr Kennedy lost them again on his way here.
1937 E. Partridge Dict. Slang Planter, a horse apt to refuse to budge.
Derivatives
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > planting > [adjective] > plantable
plantable1640
planterly1827
1827 Ld. Brougham in Life & Lett. Z. Macaulay (1900) 445 That heathenly and planterly and almost slave-trading speech.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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