pewter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English peutre, also peuter, pewtre and peauter,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French peutre, the Anglo-Norman form, recorded from about 1290, and Middle French peautre;^[5][6][7][8] the Middle English Dictionary also names Medieval Latin peutrum as a source.^[2][9] In Old French the word is recorded from about 1270 as peautre, but as early as the end of the 12th century as pautre and pialtre.^[5] It has cognates in Old Occitan peutre or peltre, Catalan peltre, Spanish peltre and Italian peltro,^[5][9][4][3] and goes back probably to an unrecorded form Vulgar Latin *piltrum, of unknown origin;^[5] Barnhart, Etymonline and Klein give it as *peltrum.^[3][9][4] Post-classical Latin had peltrum for zinc as early as 1007.^[5] The relation of these words to spelter is uncertain:^[5] the American Heritage Dictionary says the word is perhaps akin to it,^[10] and Skeat took the Romance words as adaptations of the Old French source of spelter.^[11] Weekley calls the origin unknown, though much discussed, like that of other alloys.^[12] Johnson had derived the word from Dutch.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

An alloy of tin with lead, used for tableware and church vessels: the word appears in a Latin inventory from Jarrow of 1310, which lists dishes and plates of peuter,^[2][3] and in English in 1348, in an agreement of the London pewterers' craft forbidding work by night.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also named electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, from before 1425 until 1552.^[5][2] From 1426 it meant pewter vessels collectively,^[5] a sense Etymonline dates to the mid-15th century,^[9] and Johnson (1755) gave "the plates and dishes in a house" as its second meaning, quoting Addison.^[13] The adjective, made of pewter, is recorded from 1383.^[5][9] The alloy itself changed: it originally held about a fifth of lead, but modern pewter is hardened with antimony and copper.^[5][8][14] In slang, pewter was money, especially silver, from the early 19th century,^[15][5] also prize money, and a pewter mug or a tankard or cup given as a prize;^[5][14][8] Beaumont and Fletcher used it once, in 1622, for weapons.^[5] The colour sense, a bluish or silver grey, appears as an adjective in 1887 and as a noun in 1971.^[5] In West Yorkshire dialect, to rear like London pewter meant to put on airs, from the custom of displaying bright pewter in farmhouses, and a woman who brought her husband a fortune by marriage was said to have reared him his pewter.^[16]

Timeline

• 1310 – peuter, in a Latin inventory from Jarrow.^[2][3]
• 1348 – the alloy of tin and lead.^[5][2]
• 1383 – adjective, made of pewter.^[5]
• before 1425 – electrum (obsolete by 1552).^[5]
• 1426 – pewter vessels collectively.^[5]
• 1622 – weapons, in poetry (rare, obsolete).^[5]
• 1805 – slang, money, especially silver.^[15] The OED's first record is in a letter of Jane Austen's of 1814.^[5]
• before 1839 – a pewter mug; formerly a tankard or cup given as a prize.^[5]
• 1887 – adjective, of the colour of pewter.^[5]
• 1971 – noun, the bluish or silver grey of pewter.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An alloy made mainly of tin, formerly with lead and now usually hardened with antimony and copper, used for tableware and ornaments: a pewter candlestick.^[17][8][5]
2. Plates, dishes and other utensils made of pewter.^[17][8][5]
3. A pewter tankard or mug.^[8][5][14]
4. A bluish or silvery grey colour.^[17][8][5]
5. (British, slang) A cup given as a prize; prize money.^[8][14]
6. (slang) Money, especially silver coins.^[8][15][5]
7. (obsolete, before 1425–1552) Electrum, an alloy of gold and silver.^[5][2]

Adjective

1. Made of pewter.^[5][17]
2. Of the colour of pewter; bluish grey.^[5][14][17]

Word family

• pewterer

Related words

• spelter

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins