colter

See also: Colter

English

Alternative forms

• coulter (mostly Commonwealth)
• culter

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English culter, from Old English culter, from Latin culter (“a knife”). For the phonetic development, see poultry.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊltɚ/

Noun

colter (plural colters)

1. (US) A knife or cutter attached to the beam of a plow to cut the sward, in advance of the plowshare and moldboard.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     I lately left a furrow, one or twayne, / Unplough'd, the which my coulter hath not cleft […].

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica:

     What is it but a servitude like that impos'd by the Philistims, not to be allow'd the sharpning of our own axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty licencing forges.

   • 1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 150:

     With colters bright the rushy sward bisect, / And in new veins the gushing rills direct […] .

2. (US) The part of a seed drill that makes the furrow for the seed.

Translations

cutter attached to the beam of a plow

• Breton: kontell (br) f
• Cornish: kolter m
• Czech: čertadlo n, krojidlo n, nůž (cs) m
• Dutch: kouter (nl) m
• Finnish: veitsi (fi)
• French: coutre (fr) m
• Galician: tieira f, teiroa f
• German: Sech (de) n, Kolter (de) n, Pflugmesser n
• Hungarian: csoroszlya (hu)
• Italian: coltello (it) m, coltro (it) m
• Ottoman Turkish: قلج (kılıc)
• Polish: krój (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: teiró m
• Russian: предплу́жник (ru) (predplúžnik)
• Spanish: cuchillo (es) m
• Walloon: coûte (wa) m
• Welsh: cwlltwr m

part of a seed drill

• Finnish: veitsi (fi)

References

• Chambers's Etymological Dictionary, 1896, p. 82

Anagrams

• Cotler, ECRLOT, lector

Middle English

Noun

colter

1. Alternative form of culter