Finder

[f. FIND v. + -ER¹.]

  1.  One who or that which finds, in various senses of the vb.; one who comes upon or discovers by chance or search; † one who contrives or invents, an inventor, deviser; † one who discovers (a country, a scientific truth, etc.).

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 4794.

c. 1369.  Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 1166.

a. 1420.  Hoccleve, De Regimine Principum (Roxb.), 179.

c. 1430.  Life St. Kath. (1884), 46. Þe fynder of alle euels þe fende amonge al þe craftes of his wykkednes.

1487.  Act 4 Hen. VII., c. 2 § 1. The Kyng therof to have the on half, and the fynder the other halfe.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 81 b. The fynder of the ryght waye to heuen.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 127. Christophorus Colonus the fyrst fynder of those landes. Ibid., 174. This is the tree in the leaues wherof the Chaldeans (beynge the fyrst fynders of letters) expressed their myndes before the vse of paper was knowen.

1660.  Fuller, Mixt Contempt. (1841), 184. It is more than probable that many Athenians told what they never heard, being themselves the first finders, founders, and forgers of false reports, therewith merely to entertain the itching curiosity of others.

1711.  Mrs. Centlivre, Marplot, V. Rav. By Marplot’s Direction, you know he’s a very good Finder.

1765.  Blackstone, Comm., I. ix. 349. Concerning treasure-trove, he is also to enquire who were the finders, and where it is, and whether any one be suspected of having found and concealed a treasure.

1870.  Emerson, Soc. & Solit., xii. 269. Time, yes, that is the finder, the unweariable explorer, not subject to casualties, omniscient at last.

  b.  One whose occupation it is to find; spec. slang, One who picks up the refuse of the meat-markets.

  ¶ In Termes de la Ley, 1641, and hence in certain Dicts., erroneously said to be an early synonym for SEARCHER (as the designation of a Custom-house official); in 14 Ric. II. cap. 10, and other statutes, the AF. tronour (trone-keeper) was misread as trovour (finder), whence the mistake.

1751.  Low Life (1764), 16. The whole Company of Finders, (a sort of People who get their Bread by the Hurry and Negligence of sleepy Tradesmen) are marching towards all the Markets in London, Westminster, and Southwark, to make a Seizure of all the Butchers, Poulterers, Green-Grocers, and other Market-People left behind them at their Stalls and Shambles when they went away.

1839.  Marryat, Diary Amer., Ser. I. II. 129. Finders, who would search all over the country for what they called a good prospect, that is, every appearance on the surface of a good vein of metal.

1831.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 255. I was told by one of the most respectable tradesmen in Leadenhall-market, that it was infested—but not now to so great an extent as it was—with lads and young men, known there as ‘finders.’ They carry bags round their necks, and pick up bones, or offal, or pieces of string, or bits of papers.

  c.  In comb. with advbs., as finder-out, + -up.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas, I. ii (1544), 5 b. He [Nembroth] … was … fynder vp of false religion.

1553.  Udall, Flowers Latin Speaking (1560), 103/2. The deuiser and fynder out, the begynner & also the finisher of all my pleasures.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., V. ii. 131. Had I beene the finder-out of this Secret, it would not haue relish’d among my other discredits.

1612.  Woodall, The Surgeons Mate, Preface, Wks. (1653), 1. Christian dutie inciteth every man to extol Gods great mercies towards mankind, and namely, (which is the scope of this ensuing Treatise) for his blessing concerning the gift of healing, and for the originall or first finders out of the Science.

  2.  Sporting, † A dog trained to find and bring game that has been shot; a ‘water-spaniel,’ retriever (obs.). Also, one used to discover the track of, or ‘put up,’ game for the sportsman.

1576.  Fleming, trans. Caius’ Dogs, in Arb., Garner, III. 266. He [the water-spaniell] is also called a fynder, in Latine Inquisitor, because that by serious and secure seeking, he findeth such things as be lost.

1681.  Hickeringill, Wks. (1716), I. 214. This Couple or pair usually Hunt together, and in Couples, being as necessary to each other as … a Grey-Hound and a Finder; or a Mountebank and his Fool; the one Sets, and brings in Game, and the other Hunts it down, and then both go snips in the Prey.

1766.  Pennant, Zool. (1768), I. 54.

1803.  Ann. Reg., 800. One or two small dogs called finders, whose scent is very keen, and always sure of hitting off a track.

1814.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 95. He [Dash] is a capital finder, and in spite of his lameness will hunt a field or beat a cover with any spaniel in England.

  8.  A contrivance or instrument for finding.

  † a.  An index. Obs.

1588.  J. Mellis, Briefe Instr., C iv b. Vnto which Leager it shalbe necessary to ordein or make a calender, otherwise called a Repertory or a finder.

  b.  A small telescope attached to the large one for the purpose of finding an object more readily.

1784.  Herschel, in Phil. Trans., LXXV. 41. The finder of my reflector is limited, by a proper diaphragm, to a natural field of two degrees of a great circle in diameter.

1871.  trans. Schellen’s Spectr. Anal., liii. 244. Janssen left the spectroscope to look for a moment through the finder, or small telescope.

  c.  A microscopic slide divided by crossed lines, so that any point in the field can be identified readily.

1867.  J. Hogg, Microsc., I. iii. 187. A finder, as applied to the microscope, is the means of registering the position of any particular object in a slide.

  d.  Photogr. A supplementary lens attached to a camera, to locate the object in the field of view.

[1889.  P. H. Emerson, Naturalistic Photogr., I. i. (1890), 133. The handiest view finder for quick exposure work is to fit a double convex lens of the same focal length as the working lens to the front of the camera.]

1894.  Brit. Jrnl. Photogr., XLI. 83. Cameras … in which the finders were … carelessly fixed.