# potter

Pronunciation: US say "POT-er" /ˈpɑtɚ/; UK say "POT-uh" /ˈpɒtə/

## Noun

1. Someone whose craft or trade is making pots and other ceramic ware.
   - Simple: A person who makes pots, bowls, and other things out of clay.
   - _The potter shaped a tall vase on her wheel, then set it aside to dry before firing._
   - _The town has been home to potters since the clay pits opened two centuries ago._
4. Someone who plants flowers, seedlings, or other plants in pots, especially as a job in a nursery.
   - Simple: A person who puts flowers or other plants into their pots.
   - _The nursery hires extra potters every spring to move seedlings into larger containers._
   - _A skilled potter can set out hundreds of geraniums in a single morning._
5. A person who peddles crockery or earthenware.
   - Simple: A person who goes from place to place selling plates, cups, and pots.
   - _A potter with a cart full of jugs and plates stopped at every farm along the road._
   - _The village saw the same potters every spring, traveling men who bought their crockery wholesale and sold it from door to door._
6. A person who preserves meat or other foods in pots.
   - Simple: A person who puts meat or other food into pots or jars to keep it.
   - _The potter sealed each jar of spiced beef under a layer of melted butter._
   - _Before winter the inn's potters filled dozens of crocks with shrimp and ham._
7. Another name for Pseudemys rubriventris, the red-bellied terrapin, a turtle with a reddish underside.
   - Simple: A kind of turtle that has a red belly.
   - _A potter slid off the log, flashing the reddish plates of its underside._
   - _In the Chesapeake marshes, potters bask on fallen trees through the warm months._
8. The chicken turtle, Deirochelys reticularia.
   - Simple: A kind of turtle also known as the chicken turtle.
   - _A potter stretched its long, striped neck out of the ditch to snap at a passing insect._
   - _After the spring rains, potters leave the drying ponds and wander overland in search of water._

## Verb

2. To move slowly or aimlessly, often with about or around. *(British)*
   - Simple: To move around slowly, without any real plan or hurry.
   - _On sunny mornings he likes to potter down to the docks and watch the boats come in._
   - _She pottered around the market for an hour without buying anything._
3. To act in a vague, unmotivated way, fussing over small and unimportant tasks. *(British)*
   - Simple: To do small, unimportant jobs slowly and without a real plan.
   - _He spent the morning pottering in the shed, mending things that weren't broken._
   - _I'll just potter with the paperwork until the others arrive._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To poke repeatedly.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 4–8** — From Middle English pottere, from Old English pottere ("potter", found in place names), from Proto-West Germanic *pottārī ("pot-maker"), equivalent to pot + -er, and influenced by Anglo-Norman poter and Old French potier ("potter"). It is related to Dutch potter and Low German Pötter, Pütter, and it replaced the Old English words lāmwyrhta (literally "loam-worker"), tiġelwyrhta ("tile-worker") and crocwyrhta ("crock-worker").
**Meanings 2–3** — A frequentative of pote, equivalent to pote + -er. It is related to Dutch poteren, peuteren ("to poke, pry, search").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/potter (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).