[f. BRITISH + -ER: cf. foreign-er.
(Apparently of U.S. origin, and chiefly used by, or attributed to, Americans. Mr. R. Grant White has strongly disclaimed its use in U.S., but Mr. Fitzedward Hall has known it as of American currency all his life. Prof. Freeman, in his Impressions of U.S., thinks it arose during the War of Independence, when the opposing forces were known as ‘American’ and ‘British’ (not ‘English’), and ‘Britisher’ was the natural substantive from the latter. Mr. F. treats the word more dispassionately than those who denounce it as an ‘odious vulgarism.’ See his work.)]
A British subject; a native or inhabitant of Great Britain (as distinguished from an American citizen).
1826. National Gaz., 12 April, 2/5. By reversing all the characters, so that the Britishers are the heroes, and the Yankees the Pekins.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, xx. [American mate loquitur] ‘Are we going to be bullied by these … Britishers?’
1868. Spectator, 14 Nov., 1325. Mr. Reverdy Johnson … was so complimentary to England … and to Britisher institutions.
1879. T. E. C. Leslie, in Academy, 23. Even tawdry rhetoric is venial compared with the sin of using such an odious vulgarism as the word Britisher for Englishman or Briton.
1883. Freeman, Impressions U.S., iv. 29. I always told my American friends that I had rather be called a Britisher than an Englishman, if by calling me an Englishman they meant to imply that they were not Englishmen themselves. Ibid., vi. 43. The American is really more called on to know about British matters than the Britisher is called on to know about American matters.
1884. Stevenson, New Arab. Nts., 38. His tweed suit … identified him as a Britisher.
