| 释义 |
ˈhorse-coper, -couper|-ˌkəʊpə(r), -ˌkaʊpə(r)|
Also 7 -cooper, 8 -koper, 9 dial. -cowper.
[f. horse + coper1, couper. Practically, horse-couper is treated as a northern variant of horse-coper.]
A horse-dealer.
α1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1695) 25 Some turnd Horse-Coopers, some pedlers. a1734North Lives I. 287 There were horsecopers amongst them. 1748De Foes Tours Gt. Brit. (ed. 4) II. 397 (D.) There were not less than an hundred jockeys or horse-kopers, as they call them there [Penkridge, Staffs.] from London, to buy horses for sale. 1882Pall Mall G. 2 June 4/2 Horse-copers..are singularly at one with respect to stolen nags.
β1755Johnson s.v. Horsecourser, The word now used in Scotland is horsecouper, to denote a jockey, seller, or rather changer of horses. 1814Scott Wav. xxxix, I was bred a horse-couper, sir. 1847J. Wilson Chr. North (1857) II. 25 Newcastle horse-cowpers, who laid their money thick. 1859Thackeray Virgin. xiii, Moping at the taverns..with horse-coupers and idle company.
So ˈhorse-coping, -couping n. and a., horse-dealing.
1841J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk II. 7 The mysteries of horse-couping, horse-chanting. 1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. ii, The stables of a certain horse-coping worthy. 1882Pall Mall G. 2 June 4/2 Three horses..carried south by a horse-coping gang. |