Forms: α. 4– tester; 5 -ere, -our, -ir, -ur(e, testre, Sc. tyster, -yr, 5–6 teester, 6 (9) testor, 6–7 -ar, teaster (9 dial.), 7 taister. β. 6 test-, teasterne, testorne, 7 -arn, -ern. [prob. from OF.: cf. testre fem. (15th c., one example in Godef.) the vertical part of a bed behind the head; also OF. testière, mod.F. têtière a covering for the head, etc., It. testiera, Sp. testera, med.L. testera, -eria (see TESTER2); also med.L. testerium, testrum, testūra, also testāle, all, according to Du Cange, = ‘the upper part, top, or upper covering of a bed,’ derivatives of L. testa, in late pop. L. and Comm. Romanic ‘head.’
The historical relations of these words are not quite clear, but app. med.L. testerium, -eria, It. testiera, Sp. testera, OF. testière, and ME. testere, go together in form, as do med.L. testrum, OF. and ME. testre, and perh. also med.L. testura and ME. testur; though the senses are specialized in different langs. The other Eng. forms appear to have been assimilated to various endings in -er, -ar, -or, -our, and (erratically) -ern, -orn.]
1. A canopy over a bed, supported on the posts of the bedstead or suspended from the ceiling; formerly (esp. in phrase tester and celure), the vertical part at the head of the bed which ascends to and sometimes supports the canopy, or (as some think) the wooden or metal framework supporting the canopy and curtains.
α. c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 434. In aparel of chaumbre, as in proud beddis, testeris & curteyns.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 615/17. Tapisterium, ance a Testour.
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 1474. Hur bede was off aszure, With testur and celure. Ibid., 1485. Ther was at hur testere The kyngus owne banere.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 489/2. Teester, or tethtere of a bed, capitellum.
1449. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), II. 156. Testur.
1454. E. E. Wills (1882), 133. My bed … wiþ the testour & Canape ther-to.
1530. Palsgr., 280/1. Testar for a bedde, dossier.
1548. in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721), II. xvi. 129. A bedstead gilt, with a testor and counterpoint, with curtains belonging to the same.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1568), 51/1. A teaster ouer the bedde, canopus.
1670. F. Sandford, Order Funeral Dk. Albemarle (1722), 5. A Bed of State of black Velvet … with black Plumes at the four Corners of the Tester.
1801. trans. Gabrielli’s Myst. Husb., III. 4. The tester of a bed … was suspended by cords to the lofty ceiling.
1899. Q. Rev., April, 394. The tester, carved and panelled, is surrounded by a cornice, inlaid with lighter wood, from which a crimson silk valance and curtains hang.
β. 1546. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), III. 351. A bedstok with cortins of dornix, and testerne of the same.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Conopeum … a Canapie … Some haue vsed it for a testorne to hang ouer a bed.
1599. Nottingham Rec., IV. 252. One olde thinne silke teasterne for a bedd.
1655. trans. Com. Hist. Francion, IV. 11. He took a Base Violl from the testern of his Bed.
2. transf. and fig. Something that covers or overhangs; a shrine; a canopy carried over a dignitary; the soundboard of a pulpit, etc.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. x. 773 (Cott. MS.). He mad a tystyr [v.r. textuere] in þat qwhile, Qwhar in was cloyssit þe Ewangile, Platit oure withe siluir bricht.
1598. Florio, Baldacchino,… a testerne carried ouer Princes.
1611. Cotgr., Surciel, the tester of a cloth of State.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., IV. iv. A night under the starry tester of the heavens.
1846–75. Parker, Gloss. Archit., s.v., The canopy over Queen Eleanor’s tomb at Westminster is called a tester in old documents.
1908. Athenæum, 1 Aug., 119/3. The remarkably fine pulpit and tester of the church of Bishop’s Waltham.
3. attrib. and Comb., as tester-bed, -bedstead, -rail; tester-covering adj.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxvi. 85. The rich and sumptuous Beds, with Tester-couering plumes.
1730. Southall, Bugs, 35. Oak-Bedsteds, and plain Wainscot Head-Boards, and Tester-Rails of that Wood.
1843. Borrow, Bible in Spain, xxiii. (Pelh. Libr.), 160. I was stretched on the tester bed.
1873. Sat. Rev., 29 Nov., 707/1. The mother of St. John the Baptist is supported by cushions in a tester bedstead.
Hence Testered a., having a tester.
1790. Mrs. A. M. Johnson, Monmouth, I. 70. The lofty testered bed … was in a ruinous state.
