jowter

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒaʊtə(ɹ)/

Of unknown origin. The alternative form jouster shows addition of the -ster suffix. Compare later jolter (“hawker, peddlar”).

• jouster

jowter (plural jowters)

1. (archaic) A buyer and seller of fish, usually operating from a cart or a van.
   • 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769, →OCLC:

     fish drivers , whom we call jowters

   • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 68:

     He lifted out the catfish and selected a small carp. They watched the needle swing. The old jowter twisted up the apron in his hands. Two and a half, he said.

Variant of chowter.

jowter (third-person singular simple present jowters, present participle jowtering, simple past and past participle jowtered)

1. (UK, dialectal) To grumble, growl, snarl.

“jowter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• wotjer