Latter

Latter
This is a very old English surname. It is occupational and derives from the pre 7th century word "laett" and describes a lath maker, a very important skill at a time when almost all internal building work was based around the use of lath and plaster. In fact it has been estimated that a small cottage of four rooms could contain two miles of lath, whilst an early manor house might require over fifty miles! As the majority of medieval houses built without any form of foundation or rot preservation, only had a life of thirty to forty years, it can be seen that the occupation of "latter" was that of a major industry. This remained so even into the 20th century, until superceded mainly by plasterboard, in the period between the World Wars. Occupational surnames only became hereditary when a son or perhaps a grandson followed the father into the same job. If however a son took up another skill, then he could be called by both that skill and his fathers occupation! Not surprisingly this surname is one of the first occupational surnames ever recorded with Thomas le Latier appearing in the rolls of the county of Dorset in the year 1199. This was probably not a hereditary recording, but that of Robert Latter, who appears in the manorial registers of the city of Wakefield in the year 1327, almost certainly was.

Surnames reference. 2013.

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Synonyms:
(of two) / ,


Look at other dictionaries:

  • latter — [ late ] v. tr. <conjug. : 1> • 1288; de latte ♦ Garnir de lattes. Latter un plafond. Latter à lattes jointives, à claire voie. ● latter verbe transitif Garnir quelque chose de lattes. latter v. tr. d1./d Garnir de lattes. d2./d Arg. Donner …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Latter — Lat ter, a. [OE. later, l[ae]tter, compar. of lat late. See {Late}, and cf. {Later}.] 1. Later; more recent; coming or happening after something else; opposed to {former}; as, the former and latter rain. [1913 Webster] 2. Of two things, the one… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • latter — Latter. v. a. Garnir de lattes. Cette maison est couverte, le comble est mis, il ne reste plus qu à latter, il la faut latter …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • latter — ► ADJECTIVE 1) nearer to the end than to the beginning. 2) recent: in latter years. 3) (the latter) denoting the second or second mentioned of two people or things. ORIGIN Old English, «slower»; related to LATE(Cf. ↑lateness) …   English terms dictionary

  • latter — [lat′ər] adj. [ME lattre < OE lættra, compar. of læt: it represents the orig. compar. form; LATER is a new formation] 1. alt. compar. of LATE 2. a) later; more recent b) nearer the end or close [the latter part of M …   English World dictionary

  • latter — index before mentioned, subsequent Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • latter — (adj.) O.E. lætra slower, comparative of læt late (see LATE (Cf. late) (adj.)). Sense of second of two first recorded 1550s. The modern LATER (Cf. later) is a formation from mid 15c …   Etymology dictionary

  • latter — [adj] latest, concluding closing, eventual, final, following, hindmost, lag, last, last mentioned, later, modern, rearmost, recent, second, terminal; concepts 585,799 Ant. earliest, former, preceding …   New thesaurus

  • latter — former, latter 1. These two words are used individually or contrastively (as the former and the latter) to refer to the first and second respectively of two people or things previously mentioned; in this role they are used attributively (before a …   Modern English usage

  • latter — 01. Whereas the former proposal is more costly, the [latter] one would take much more time. 02. Nervousness about Y2K computer problems grew considerably in the [latter] half of 1999. 03. My grandfather had always been very healthy, but his mind… …   Grammatical examples in English

  • latter — lat|ter [ lætər ] function word *** Latter can be used in the following ways: as an adjective (only before a noun): the latter half of 1996 He considered his students either geniuses or idiots, and I fell into the latter category. as a pronoun… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

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