Forms: 3 ? antolier, auntolier, 4–5 auntelere, hauntelere, 5–6 auntler, 6–8 antlier, 6– antler. [a. OFr. antoillier:—late L. *ant(e)oculār-em (ramum) the ‘branch’ or tine of a stag’s horn ‘in front of the eyes’; cf. Ger. augensprosze ‘eye-sprout.’ Antoillier represented an earlier *antoglier (cf. OFr. avogle, It. avocolo:—L. abocul-um, and Fr. oill for *ogl:—oculum), later OFr. andoillier, now andouiller (see Dr. Bugge in Romania, IV. 349). The original English form must have been antolier, auntolier, whence, by weakening and eventual loss of atonic o, auntelere, auntler, antler.]
1. orig. The lowest (forward-directed) branch of the horn of a stag or other deer; afterwards extended to any branch, the lowest being then called the brow-antler, and the next bes-antler.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, II. 128. Ȝoure hauntelere dere were all y-takyn.
a. 1420. Venery de Twety, in Rel. Ant., I. 151. Whan an hert hath fourched, and then auntelere ryall, and surryall, and forched on the one syde, and troched on that other syde, than is he an hert of .x. and of the more.
c. 1520. Skelton, Speke Parrot, 481. So bygge a bulke of brow auntlers cabbagid that yere.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (1880), 23. Chiefe stags vpbearing croches high from the antlier hauted.
1608. Norden, Surv. Dial., 183. What Deere hath the Lord of this Mannor in his Park, red and fallow: how many of Antler, and how many rascall?
1686. Phil. Trans., XVI. 225. The Andouilleres of a Staggs Horn.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 289. The Fallow Hart or Stag doth bear his Head high … has small Beams, with long, slender, and ill-grown Antliers.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Antler, among hunters, the first of the pearls that grow about the bur of a deer’s horn. There are also sur-antlers, brow-antlers, etc.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. Huge stags with sixteen antlers.
1864. Derby Merc., 14 Dec., 2/6. The curious articles made from the brow antler of a stag’s horn.
2. Hence popularly: The branched horn of a stag or other deer.
1829. Scott, Demonol., x. 395. A vaulted apartment garnished with stags’ antlers.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 260. The Deer tribe, distinguished by the possession of long deciduous horns, covered with a soft skin or velvet … and termed Antlers.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann., II. III. vi. 164. The skull and antlers of a gigantic deer.
