1893 text

Bewpers is the old name for bunting.


This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.

6 Annotations

First Reading

Pauline  •  Link

from L&M's Large Glossary
v. 289 bunting, fabic used for flags; origin unknown (?Beaupreau, Fr. town) (elsewhere 'blufers' and other variants) 1592.

Cum grano salis  •  Link

OED has no entry for Bewper[s]

flag ...bunting\
a. 'An open-made worsted stuff, used for making flags' (Ure Dict. Arts); also in general, a flag, or flags collectively.

644 H. MANWAYRING Sea-mans Dict. s.v. Flaggs, At sea to lower or strike ones Flagg in fight is a token of yeelding, but otherwise of great obedience and respect.

Cum grano salis  •  Link

Errata: OED beaupers, bewpers

A fabric, apparently linen; used for flags.
1592 Wills & Inv. N.C. II. (1860) 211 Lawne cufes 3s.,peace of bowpres 16s. 1660 Act 12 Chas. II, iv. Sched., Beaupers the piece jl. vs.

1664 PEPYS Diary (1879) III. 56 Among the Linnen Wholesale Drapers..to see what can be done with them for the supplying our want of Bewpers for flaggs. Ibid. 16 June, Supplying us with bewpers from Norwich.

1720 Stow's Surv. (1754) II. V. xviii. 382/2 Bolters and Bewpers the dozen pieces 1d.

WinchesterWing  •  Link

This Life, which seems so fair,
Is like a bubble blown up in the air
By sporting children's breath,
Who chase it everywhere

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Beaupers, bewpers. Obs. Also bowpros. [Deriv. unknown: it has been referred to Beaupreau, a town of France with manufactures of linen and woolen.] A fabric, apparently linen; used for flags.
---A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. J.A.H. Murray, 1887. [the first edition of the OED]

Third Reading

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1663

1664