Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A court official corresponding to the steward of an ordinary household. Sometimes called discthegn.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who brings meat to the table; hence, in some countries, the official title of the grand master or steward of the king's or a nobleman's household.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the servant that brings the meat to the table at a meal.
  • noun the official title of the steward in a medieval English nobleman's household.
  • noun the most senior of the five great officers of state in the medieval French royal court.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin dapifer, from Latin daps ("feast") + ferō ("bear").

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Examples

  • St. Mary's Abbey at York and was founded by Wyman, steward or dapifer to the Earl of Richmond, about the year 1100, whereas the Franciscans in the town owed their establishment to Radulph Fitz-Ranulph, a lord of

    Yorkshire Gordon Home 1923

  • Hall, after the Lord of Bedale of that name, who was a sewer or dapifer to the first Earl Alan of Richmond.

    Yorkshire Gordon Home 1923

  • There is much doubt as to whether this Stephen was Stephen de Garland, dapifer, or another Stephen, who was royal chancellor under Louis the

    Historia Calamitatum: The Story of My Misfortunes 1922

  • Stephen dapifer as Stephen de Garland, seneschal of France, is trustworthy.

    Historia Calamitatum: The Story of My Misfortunes 1922

  • But in a medieval vocabulary we find "setter of mes, dapifer," which would make it the same as Sewer (Chapter XV).

    The Romance of Names Ernest Weekley 1909

  • Siward by his wife Cecilia had a large family: Hugh de Rotley [379] (dapifer or sewer to his kinsman William de Newburgh), Henry de Arden,

    Shakespeare's Family 1885

  • Sicily a king, to Russia the magnus dapifer of the empire, to

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • For though my ratification hath not yet been ac - cepted at Munfter, becaufe the title of Archi - dapifer is ftill in it, yet they are willing to give me a recepiffe that I have offered them, and that there was no other fault in the form of them: neither is it reafonable that I fhould omit it before all be performed which • is promifed on their fide.

    A Collection of Original Royal Letters 1787

Comments

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  • One who brings meat to the table; hence (in some countries) the official title of the grand master or steward of a noble's household.

    November 6, 2007

  • A housemaid will always be neat;

    A footman you'll know by his feet.

    And might a chap infer

    That fellow's a dapifer

    Who carries a trencher of meat?

    March 29, 2015

  • At last, a rhyme for crapifer.

    March 29, 2015