Forms: 1–2, 4–6 sawere, 2 sæwere, 4 sauer, 4–6, 9 Sc. sawer, 6 Sc. sawar; 3–4 sowere, 4– sower. [f. SOW v.1 + -ER. Cf. MDu. saeyer, sayer, etc. (Du. zaaier), MLG. and LG. seiger, seier (saier), OHG. sâhari, sâari (MHG. sejer, seher, sewer, etc., G. säer).]
1. One who sows seed.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xiii. 3. Soþlice, ut-eode se sædere [v.r. sawere, Hatton sæwere] hys sæd to sawenne.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 155. Ðo beden þe holi apostles seien hem wat þe sowere bitocneð.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVIII. 103. Now failleþ þis folke boþe sowers and shupmen.
c. 1400. Cursor M., 28839 (Cotton Galba). Þaire sede to þe feld bus husbandes bere, Bot þis feld cumes to þe sawere.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., c. 10. All tillers, husbandes, and sowers of the erth within the same.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 37. Good seede and good sower.
1611. Bible, Isaiah lv. 10. That it may giue seed to the sower.
1762. Mills, Syst. Pract. Husb., I. 321. The inequality of the handfuls which different sowers grasp.
1822. A. Cunningham, Tradit. Tales, Mother’s Dream (1887), 119. A humble sower of seed-corn.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain, xxiv. I … read to them the parable of the Sower.
b. fig. or in fig. context.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 133. Godes word is sed and crist is þe sawere.
1526. Tindale, Mark iv. 14. The sower soweth the worde.
1779. Cowper, The Sower, 3. The Sower is gone forth to sow, And scatter blessings round.
1821. Shelley, Hellas, 576. The Greek has reaped The costly harvest his own blood matured, Not the sower, Ali.
1874. W. St. H. Bourne, Hymn, ‘The sower went forth sowing,’ iv. (A. & M.). One day the heavenly Sower Shall reap where He hath sown.
c. A machine or apparatus for sowing seed; a sowing-machine.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Sembrador, To remedy this Inconvenience, the Sembrador or Sower, is invented, which being fastened to the Plough, the whole Business … is done at once.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 788. A simpler implement than even this has been employed—the hand-flask sower.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 417. Field No. 1 … sown with broadcast sower and cultivator combined.
2. transf. One who spreads abroad or disseminates something, esp. what is obnoxious or objectionable; a promoter or propagator of discord, sedition, etc.
1380. Lay Folks Catech. (Lamb. MS.), 734. Bakbyters and sowers of fals lesynggys.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sec. Nun’s T., 192. Almyghty Lord,… Sower of chaste counseil, herde of us alle.
c. 1450. in Trevisa’s Higden (Rolls), VIII. 469. The myrroure of ypocrites, the sawer of discorde,… maister Iohn Wiclif.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, III. vii. (S.T.S.), I. 271. Ane cumpany of … seditious lymmaris, sawaris of discorde.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, T iv b. Mars the God of discord and sower of all Sedition.
1639. Drumm. of Hawth., Mem. State, Wks. (1711), 130. Clouis … caused extirpate that Sower of Impostures, and all his Race.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xviii. IV. 160. The favourite theme of the sowers of sedition.
