gilder

Etymology 1

From Middle English gilder (“gilder; goldsmith”) [and other forms], from gilden (“to cover with gilding, gild; to decorate with gold”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“to flourish; green, yellow”)) + -er, -ere (suffix forming agent nouns, especially the names of persons engaged in professions or trades); analysable as gild + -er.

noun

1. One who gilds; especially one whose occupation is to overlay things with gold.
   Gilding in oil, or oily ſize, is uſed for domes, roofs of churches, ſtatues that are to ſtand in the weather, &c. For this purpoſe the Engliſh gilders generally adopt a gold ſize, made of yellow oker ground fine with water, and dried on a chalk ſtone, then ground up with a proper quantity of drying oil, to give it the ſtiffneſs required. 1767, Thomas Mortimer, “GILDER”, in A New and Complete Dictionary of Trade and Commerce:[…], volume II, London: Printed for the author; and sold by S. Crowder,[…]; and J. Coote,[…]; and J. Fletcher,[…], →OCLC, column 2
   He was a painter and gilder. … Now could the poor gilder no longer get paid by his employers. 1810 January, “O.” [pseudonym], “Remarkable Benevolence”, in The Christian’s Magazine: Designed to Promote the Knowledge and Influence of Evangelical Truth and Order, volume III, number I, New York, N.Y.: Published by Williams and Whiting,[…]; J. Seymour, printer, →OCLC, page 29
   Charles Shaw was born in Tunstall, in the Potteries, in 1832, the son of a skilled painter and gilder in the pottery trade who lost this well-paid job through victimization after a strike. 1974, “An Old Potter”, in John Burnett, editor, Useful Toil: Autobiographies of Working People from the 1820s to the 1920s, London: Allen Lane; republished London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 1994, part III (Skilled Workers), page 303
   On the Costa, a street full of gilders, carpenters, carvers, and stucco experts, their status as Inglesi—bourgeois as well as fine artists—set them apart. 1996, Carolyn Burke, “Anglo-Florence (1907–10)”, in Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, part II (Becoming Mina Loy), page 117
   Indeed, economic resource, previously assigned to physical ornamentation, the gold of the gilder, is here plowed into the control right down to the last half-millimeter. 2014, Francesca Hughes, “Error and Surface: Counted Away: Indexicality and the Sublimation of Ornament: (Hermine) Wittgenstein’s Radiator”, in The Architecture of Error: Matter, Measure, and the Misadventures of Precision, Cambridge, Mass., London: MIT Press, page 235

Etymology 2

From Middle English gilder (“any of various coins (originally gold), especially in use in Flanders, Germany and Holland”) [and other forms], from Middle Dutch gulden, Middle Low German gulden (“guilder”), influenced by Middle English gilden (“made of gold; covered or decorated with gold; of a gold colour; wealthy; glorious; precious; blessed, happy; relating to the middle way or mean”).

noun

1. (archaic, rare) Alternative spelling of guilder
   [N]one ſhall be choſen to be a Commiſſioner in the Court at Amſterdam, vnleſſe he put ſix thouſand gilders ſtocke of his owne in the ſaid Companie; … 1621, Orders and Articles Granted by the High and Mightie Lords the States General of the Vnited Provinces, Concerning the Erecting of a VVest Indian Companie: Together with the Priuiledges and Rights Giuen vnto the Same, [London: s.n.], →OCLC, clause 13
   On the Spuy is a good Dutch Inn, called the Hoff van Utrecht. The Price is a Gilder a Day, or a Shilling for the Dinner only. 1743, [Henry Lawson], “The Manner in which Strangers Live at the Hague”, in A Description of Holland: Or, The Present State of the United Provinces.[…], London: Printed for J. and P. Knapton,[…], →OCLC, page 208
   In order to restrain excessive and inconsiderate liberality, it was introduced by the written laws, that no present exceeding the amount of five hundred gold gilders of Rome may exist, unless it be made and confirmed publicly and lawfully in writing before the court of justice of the place; … 1820, Simon van Leeuwen, “Of Gifts and Presents”, in Commentaries on the Roman-Dutch Law. Translated from the Dutch, London: Printed by A[ndrew] Strahan,[…]; for Joseph Butterworth and Son,[…], and J. Cooke,[…], →OCLC, §3, page 447
   On both sides they will confuse you by explaining that the Dutch gilder is the currency they prefer—a type of coin you are certain to be without. 1958, Alec Waugh, “Antigua”, in The Sugar Islands. A Collection of Pieces Written about the West Indies between 1928 and 1953, London: Cassell, →OCLC, page 263; republished London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012
   … i.e. the 11 'legacy' currencies replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999 (Portuguese escudo, Belgian and Luxembourg franc, French franc, Dutch gilder, Italian lira, …). 2002, Richard Portes, Georges de Menil, Hans-Werner Sinn, editors, Economic Policy: 35, London: Blackwell, page 556