Forms: 4–6 steynour, 5 staynour, stener, stenyoure, 6 steyner, 6–7 stayner, 6– stainer. [agent-n. f. STAIN v.: see -OR 2 b, -ER1.]
1. One whose employment is staining; one who colors wood, etc., with pigments that penetrate below the surface; † a worker of ‘stained cloths’ (see STAINED ppl. a. 2). See also PAINTER-STAINER, PAPER-STAINER.
1388. Wyclif, Exod. xxxv. 35. That thei make the werkis of carpenter, of steynour [Vulg. polymitarii], and of broiderere.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 81. Peyntour, steynour, mason, nor carpentere.
1471. Little Red Bk. Bristol (1900), II. 131. John Sutton, Goldsmyth, and John Body, Staynour.
1489. Acc., in Sharp, Cov. Myst. (1825), 196. Paid to the stener ffor workemanship ther-off [buckram for standards], x s. viij d.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 364. The tayllours helde ye craft of stayners.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Rhyparographus, a paynter of tryfles, a Stayner.
1589. Lodge, Scillaes Metam., Ep. Ded. From the shop of the Painter, shee is falne into the hands of the stainer.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 5018/4. All Printers, Painters and Stainers of Paper. Ibid., No. 5025/2. Silks, Callicoes, Linens and Stuffs which shall … be in the Possession of any private Painter, Stainer or Dyer to be printed.
2. One who or something that stains or calumniates.
1647. J. Norris (title), A Lash for a Lyar; Or, The Stayner Stayned, Being An Answer to a false and scandalous Pamphlet.
3. A tincture of coloring matter used in staining.
1891. in Century Dict.
Hence † Staineress, a female stainer.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, III. xxvii. (1869), 150. Þis hand is a steynowresse of corteynes and a makere. [A mistranslation; the orig. has estendresse stretcher.]
