antler

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English aunteler, also auntelere,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman antiler, also auntiller and auntilor,^[5] a variant of Old French antoillier,^[6][7][8][9] now andouiller;^[5][8][10] the OED thinks the French forms with d were probably influenced, perhaps by andoille (“a pork sausage”).^[5] The OED, the American Heritage Dictionary and Klein derive the French word from an unattested Medieval Latin *anteoculāre (“horn in front of the eyes”), the neuter of an adjective meaning in front of the eyes, from Latin ante (“before”) and oculāris (“of the eyes”).^[5][11][3] Barnhart gives the form *antoculāre and calls it Northern Gallo-Romance.^[9] German Augensprosse (“antler, literally eye-sprout”) is compared for the sense.^[9][3][4] Weekley and Etymonline note the difficulty that no similar word exists in the other Romance languages,^[4][10] Ayto calls the derivation rather dubious,^[12] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English give the French word as of unknown origin.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The lowest, forward-pointing branch of a deer's horn, the brow antler: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Þe age of hertes is yknowe by auntelers.^[2][5][9] The French word had this sense in Anglo-Norman before 1330.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word first named one particular tine, and the sense spread to the others: in French it covered any branch of the horn before 1377, and in English it came to mean the same.^[5][10] Only in 1603 is it recorded for the whole branched horn, the usual meaning now.^[5] Johnson (1755) was still careful about this, saying that the word properly meant the first branches of a stag's horns but popularly any of them.^[13] Since 1872 it has also named the bony material itself, and since 1775 it has been short for the antler moth.^[5] The Middle English phrase deer of antler, a male deer mature enough for branched horns, is recorded from before 1425 and is now historical.^[5][2] The adjective antlered is recorded from 1813.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1398 – the lowest branch of a deer's horn, as aunteler.^[5][9][2]
• before 1425 – deer of antler, a male deer with branched horns.^[5][2]
• 1603 – each of the paired horns of a stag or other deer.^[5]
• 1775 – short for antler moth.^[5]
• 1813 – antlered.^[10]
• 1872 – the bony material of antlers.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. One of the pair of branched bony growths on the head of a male deer or related animal, shed and grown again each year: The stag's antlers caught in the wire.^[14][15][5]
2. A single branch or tine of such a growth; originally the lowest one.^[15][5][6]
3. The hard bony material of these growths.^[5]
4. Short for antler moth.^[5][6]

Word family

• antlered
• antlerless

Related words

• ocular
• ante-

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster