potter
pronunciation
How to pronounce potter in British English:
UK [ˈpɒtə(r)]
How to pronounce potter in American English:
US [ˈpɑtə(r)]
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- Noun:
- a craftsman who shapes pottery on a potter's wheel and bakes them it a kiln
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- Verb:
- do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly
- work lightly
- move around aimlessly
Word Origin
- potter
- potter: see put
- potter (n.)
- "maker of pots" (they also sometimes doubled as bell-founders), late Old English pottere "potter," reinforced by Old French potier "potter," both from the root of pot (n.1). As a surname from late 12c. Potter's field (1520s) is Biblical, a ground where clay suitable for pottery was dug, later purchased by high priests of Jerusalem as a burying ground for strangers, criminals, and the poor (Matt. xxvii:7). An older Old English word for "potter" was crocwyrhta "crock-wright."
- potter (v.)
- "occupy oneself in a trifling way," 1740, earlier "to poke again and again" (1520s), frequentative of obsolete verb poten "to push, poke," from Old English potian "to push" (see put (v.)). Related: Pottered; pottering.
Example
- 1. Moving a potter 's wheel and kiln is no easy task .
- 2. Who is the potter , pray , and who the pot ?
- 3. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter 's oven ?
- 4. Gates still adopts personas , but they 're more often modeled after historic black characters like south carolina slave potter dave drake , who famously wrote poems on the shoulders of his pots at a time when black people were forbidden to read .