Godalming, March 19. 1850.
_Shipster_.--_Gourders_.--As no satisfactory elucidation of the
question propounded by Mr. Fox (No. 14. p. 216.) has been suggested,
and I think he will scarcely accept the conjecture of "F.C.B.,"
however ingenious (No. 21. p. 339.), I am tempted to offer a note
on the business or calling of a shipster. It had, I believe, no
connection with nautical concerns; it did not designate a skipper (in
the Dutch use of the word) of the fair sex. That rare volume, Caxton's
_Boke for Travellers_, a treasury of archaisms, supplies the best
definition of her calling:--"Mabyll the shepster cheuissheth her
right well; she maketh surplys, shertes, breches, keuerchiffs, and
all that may be wrought of lynnen cloth." The French term given, as
corresponding to shepster, is "_cousturière._" Palsgrave also, in
his _Èclaircissement de la Langue françoyse_, gives "schepstarre,
_lingière_:--sheres for shepsters, _forces_." If further evidence were
requisite, old Elyot might be cited, who renders both _sarcinatrix_
and _sutatis_ (? _sutatrix_) as "a shepster, a seamester." The term
may probably be derived from her skill in shaping or cutting out the
various garments of which Caxton gives so quaint an inventory. Her
vocation was the very same as that of the _tailleuse_ of present
times--the _Schneiderinn_, she-cutter, of Germany. Palsgrave likewise
gives this use of the verb "to shape," expressed in French by
"_tailler_." He says, "He is a good tayloure, and _shapeth_ a garment
as well as any man." It is singular that Nares should have overlooked
this obsolete term; and Mr. Halliwell, in his useful _Glossarial
Collections_, seems misled by some similarity of sound, having
noticed, perhaps, in Palsgrave, only the second occurrence of the
word as before cited, "sheres for shepsters." He gives that author as
authority for the explanation "shepster, a sheep-shearer" (_Dict. of
Archaic Words_, in v.). It has been shown, however, I believe, to have
no more concern with a sheep than a ship.
The value of your periodical in eliciting the explanation of crabbed
archaisms is highly to be commended. Shall I anticipate Mr. Bolton
Corney, or some other of your acute glossarial correspondents, if
I offer another suggestion, in reply to "C.H." (No. 21. p. 335.),
regarding "gourders of raine?" I have never met with the word in
this form; but Gouldman gives "a gord of water which cometh by rain,
_aquilegium_." Guort, gorz, or gort, in Domesday, are interpreted
by Kelham as "a wear"; and in old French, _gort_ or _gorz_ signifies
"_flot, gorgées, quantité_" (Roquefort). All these words, as well as
the Low Latin _gordus_ (Ducange), are doubtless to be deduced, with
_gurges, a gyrando_.