arch. Forms: α. 1–5 cordewaner(e, 5 -wenere, corduener(e, (corwaner, kordwanner), 5–6 cordeweyner(e, -wayner, cordwaner, 5–7 -wayner, 6 -weiner, -wener, 6– cordwainer; corruptly 7 cordwiner, 7–9 -winder. β. 5–6 cordyner(e, 6–7 -inere, -ener, (Sc. -anar, -inar, -enar, -onar), 6–9 Sc. cordiner. γ. 6–7 corviner. [a. AF. cordewaner = OF. cordoanier, -ouanier, -uennier, etc., mod.F. cordonnier, f. cordewan, cordouan, CORDWAIN. Cf. It. cordovaniere, MDu. kordewanier (Kilian), MHG. kurdiwæner, shoemaker. Originally in Sp., It., and OF., a maker of or dealer in cordovan leather; thence in later F. and the Teutonic langs., a worker in this leather, a shoemaker. The form cordiner was retained till a late period in Scotland.]
A worker in cordwain or cordovan leather; a shoemaker. Now obs. as the ordinary name, but often persisting as the name of the trade-guild or company of shoemakers, and sometimes used by modern trades unions to include all branches of the trade. (In Scotland in the 18th c. distinguished from ‘shoemaker’: see 1722 in β.)
α. a. 1100. in Earle, Land-Charters, 257. Randolf se cordewan[ere].
1200. Rotuli Chartarum, 61/1. Roger Cordewaner.
1397. Act 21 Rich. II., c. 16 § 1. Qe null Suour ne Cordewaner ne use la mistier de Tanner.
1415. York Myst., Introd. 23. Cordwaners.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 651/31. Hic alutarius, Ae cordewenere.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, vii. 173. They lighted att a cordueners house.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B. (Percy Soc.), 9. Coryers, cordwayners, and cobelers.
1570. Levins, Manip., 79. A cordweiner, calcearius.
1600. Dekker, Gentle Craft, Wks. 1873, I. 44. L. Ma. Maister Eyre, are all these Shoomakers? Eyre. All Cordwainers, my good Lord Mayor.
1682. Mrs. Behn, False Count, I. i. Her Father … was in his youth an English cordwinder, that is to say a shoomaker.
1720. Strype, Stow’s Surv. (1754), II. V. xii. 299/1. The company of Shoemakers or Cordwainers as they stile themselves … were first incorporated in the 17th year of King Henry VI.
1814. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., XII. 30. The unanimous resolution of the incorporated Company of Cordwainers of Newcastle upon Tyne.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. i. (1858), 128. This poor Cordwainer, as we said, was a Man.
1837. Wheelwright, trans. Aristophanes, I. 325. Surrendering thyself to … cordwinders, To leather-cutters and to hide-dealers.
1892. Alden’s Oxford Almanac, 45. Trades Unions … Cordwainers’ Society.
β. 1473–4. in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl., I. 65. To Henry Litstare the Kingis cordenar.
1481. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 331. The crafte of cordynerez.
1512. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 7. The crafte of cordeners in Oxford.
1552. Lyndesay, The Tragedy, 353. Ane trym Tailyeour, ane connyng Cordonar.
1608. N. Riding Records (1884), I. 125. John Simpson of Staythes, cordener.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 85. Cordiner or Cordwayner.
a. 1651. Calderwood, Hist. Kirk (1843), II. 124. The magistrats apprehended … one Killon, a cordiner.
1722. Annals of Hawick (1850), The cordiners petition the council to be incorporated and separated from the shoemakers ‘or those who make single-soled shoes.’
γ. 1601. Holland, Pliny, X. xliii. Another shoomaker who had taken the next corviners shop unto him. Ibid. (1634), I. 188. The art of sowing, as wel for tailors as Corviners and shoomakers.
