pavior

English

Alternative forms

• paviour

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman paviour, from pavier (“to pave”).

Noun

pavior (plural paviors)

1. A person who lays paving slabs. [from 15th c.]
   • 1778 April 3, “Appendix. Report from the Committee on the State of the Pavements, &c. in the Streets of Dublin”, in The Journals of the House of Commons, of the Kingdom of Ireland, […], volume XX, Dublin: Printed by Abraham Bradley and Abraham Bradley King, […], published 1782, →OCLC, page 539:

     [T]he Contract with the Pipe-water Pavior was, as he recollects, to keep the Pavement in Repair for ſix Weeks; […]

   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Household Words, volume 6, page 387:

     A "mooner," fond of staring into shop windows, or watching the labourers pulling up the pavement to inspect the gas-pipes, or listening stolidly to the dull "pech" of the paviour's rammer on the flags.

2. A brick or slab used for paving. [from 17th c.]
3. (obsolete) A machine that is used to tamp down paving slabs. [19th c.]

Latin

Verb

pavior

1. first-person singular present passive indicative of paviō