Also 5–6 costerd(e. [app. of English formation; not found in OF. Perhaps f. OF. and AF. coste rib + -ARD, meaning a prominently ribbed apple, a sense which agrees with the description of existing varieties so called.]
1. A kind of apple of large size.
Often mentioned from 14th to 17th c., after which the word passes out of common use, though still retained by fruit-growers in the name of one or more varieties of apple identical with or derived from the original Costard. The latter is described by R. Hogg, British Pomology, 1851, as a large apple, distinctly five-sided, having five prominent ribs extending into the basin of the eye, and forming ridges round the crown. A Kentish grower who has Martin’s Costari, describes it in May 1892, as ‘a very large apple, shape oval, very much ribbed, a strong grower, bearing every other year.’
1292. Acc. of King’s Fruiterer (Exch. Misc. T. R. 40/24, Record Off.) [Brought into Berwick Castle] cum eisdem ponder[a] iije pom[orum] costard, prec[ium] cent. xii d.
[1345. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xviii. 419.]
a. 1400. Pystyl of Susan, 96. Þe costardes comeliche in cuþþes þei cayre.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 15. The frutis wiche more comon be, Quenyngez, pechis, costardes, etiam wardons.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 94. Costard, appulle, quiriarium.
1519. in Old City Acc. Bk. (Archæol. Jrnl., XLIII.). Gret costerds wt peyers and wyn.
1564. Becon, Display. Popish Mass (Parker Soc., 1844), 283. Ye … make merchandize of the sacrament, as the costardmonger doth of his costards and of his other fruits.
1676. T. Glover, in Phil. Trans., XI. 628. All sorts of English Apples, as Pear-mains, Pippins, Russetens, Costards.
1851. R. Hogg, Brit. Pomol., 62. The true Costard is now rarely to be met with…. Modern authors make the Costard synonymous with the Catshead…; but this is evidently an error…. Ray describes both the Catshead and Costard as distinct, and Leonard Meager enumerates three varieties of Costard in his list—the white, grey, and red.
2. Applied humorously or derisively to the head. arch. (Cf. coco-nut.)
1530. Palsgr., 679/1. I shall rappe you on the costarde if you playe the knave.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., III. v. (Arb.), 58. I knocke your costarde if ye offer to strike me.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 247. Ice try whither your Costard, or my Ballow be the harder.
1674. Ray, S. & E. Country Words (1691), 93. Costard; the Head. It is a kind of opprobrious word, used by way of Contempt.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xii. It’s hard I should get raps over the costard, and only pay you back in make-believes.
1880. Webb, trans. Goethe’s Faust, I. xi. 56. Each other’s costards let ’em split.
† b. ? = CAP. Obs.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, III. v. Ile make a close-stool of your velvet costard.
Costard = COSTREL, COSTRET.
1503. Will of Ferrer (Somerset Ho.). Vnum ciphum vocat[um] costerd.
17[?]. Urry, MS. additions to Ray (in Halliwell), Costard … (2) a flask, or flasket.
