different between purser vs purler

English

Etymology

purse +? -er

Noun

purser (plural pursers)

1. The person responsible for handling the accounts on a ship, or for dealing with the passengers on a ship or aircraft.
   • 1962, J. L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words

     If we offend against any of the other rules (A's or B's) - that is if we, say, utter the formula incorrectly, or if, say, we are not in a position to do the act because we are, say, married already, or it is the purser and not the captain who is conducting the ceremony, then the act in question, e.g. marrying, is not successfully performed at all, does not come off, is not achieved.

Translations

Anagrams

• purres

English

Etymology 1

From purl (“a fall”).

Noun

purler (plural purlers)

1. (Britain, colloquial) A headlong fall or tumble.

   He came a purler on the icy path.

   • 1869, “Stonehenge” (editor), The Coursing Calendar for the Autumn Season 1868, Containing Returns of All the Public Courses Run in Great Britain snd Ireland, page 172,

     Dilston and Savernake: the latter led, and turned, but in trying to kill came down a purler, which completely knocked all the go out of him; Dilston took possession of the hare, and kept it, winning the course in hollow style.

   • 1954, British Broadcasting Corporation, The Listener, Volume 51, page 67,

     Her French-speaking table in the dining-room is a riot of second-rate behaviour and dexterously aimed bread-pellets; the stairs outside her bedroom are relentlessly buttered and she comes purler after purler.

   • 1986, Judith Saxton (Katie Flynn), Family Feeling, 2012, unnumbered page,

     Yet he was very sure that he had tripped and gone a purler just as he was leaving the Other Place . . . had that made him gash his forehead, once he was back in the pit?

   • 2003, Susan Hill, The Boy Who Taught The Beekeeper To Read, The Boy Who Taught The Beekeeper To Read: And Other Stories, 2011, unnumbered page,

     ‘You could hold the ladder,’ Mart said, ‘see I don?t come a purler.’

2. (Britain, colloquial) A knockdown blow; a blow that causes a person to fall headlong.
   • 1867, Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé), Under Two Flags, 2006, page 60,

     […] but, falling with a mighty crash, gave him a purler on the opposite side, and was within an inch of striking him dead with his hoof in frantic struggles to recover.

Synonyms

• (headlong fall or tumble):
• (incapacitating blow): king hit (Australian)

See also

• come a cropper

Etymology 2

Uncertain.

Alternative forms

• pearler

Pronunciation

Noun

purler (plural purlers)

1. (Australia, colloquial) Something extremely good.

Anagrams

• purrel