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Towadethroughwaterormud; with the ducks amongst the papers
 

                                She shifted her hand,
                        and ‘ploitered’ amongst the papers for full five minutes.   ₁
 
        for he would be forever with the ducks,
ploutering about at the ‘spout’.   ₂
 

1. “Sortilage on Behalf of a Literary Institution” (running head, “Sortilage and Astrology,”, dated Feb 24, 1848) in Leaders in Literature, with a notice of Traditional Errors Affecting Them. By Thomas De Quincey. (London, 1858) : 260-283 (269)
   (google books) : link
   also in De Quincey’s Works, vol. 8 (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1862)
   Princeton copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
   title page : link

   some nice passages here, involving a bath “large enough to swim in... [that, superseded] has yielded a secondary service... as a reservoir for my MSS. Filled to the brim it is by papers of all sorts and sizes...”

   Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)
   wikipedia : link

2. Mary Findlater “Void of Understanding,” The Living Age 223:2889 (November 18, 1899) : 441-448 (443) : link (initial landing)
   but first publication in Cornhill Magazine No. 477 (September 1899) : 310-321 (313)
   Cornell copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link

   A striking story, whose hero Berry is feeble-minded, dis/differently abled, and poorly treated. It is by virtue of his being “void of understanding” in a superficial sense, that Berry provides evidence of “that awful unalterable Love, whose face we may not see.” (p321)

   Mary Findlater (1865-1963), Scottish novelist and poet; wrote alone and in collaboration with her sister Jane
   wikipedia : link
    

why plouter? why ploiter?

meandering from putterings, wondered if there might exist the word “plutter.” I find it only in regional variations of “plouter” (see Wright, immediately below), but was pleased to find “to potter” among its subsidiary meanings in the OED.

1. PLOUTER, v., sb. and adv. Sc. Irel. Nhb. Cum. Yks. Also written plowter Sc. n.Ir. ; and in forms pleeter Cum. ; pleuter Cum.14 ; plleuter Bnff.1 ; ploiter Sc. ; plotter w.Sc. (JAM.) w.Yks. ; plutter Nhb.1 Cum.1 [plau'ts(r.] 1. v. Towadethroughwaterormud; tosplash, flounder, dabble in any liquid substance. Cf. plout, v.

   search result, Joseph Wright, The English dialect dictionary Vol. IV, M – Q (1903)
   archive.org : link

   these senses :

   1. v To wade through water or mud; to splash, flounder, dabble in any liquid substance.
   2. To be engaged in wet or dirty work; to work awkwardly or slovenly; to trifle, dawdle, linger.
   ...Hence Pleutery or Ploiterie, anything wet, dirty, or disagreeable; wet weather; refuse, rubbish; ill-cooked food;..
   3. sb. A splash, plunge; a splashing sound; the act of walking through mud or water.
   4. Phr. to play plouter, to fall with a splash.
   5. Wet, disagreeable work.
   6. Ill-cooked food.
   7. pl. A term of contempt.
   8. adv. With noise in a liquid substance.

2. Plouter, chiefly Sc. Also plowter, plotter...
   intr. To flounder or move about with splashing in water or mire; to dabble or work in anything wet or dirty; also, to work ineffectually, to potter.

   ex James A. H. Murray, ed., A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles Vol. VII. O, P. (1909) : link

   the OED also delivers up Ploiter, v. dial. [Akin to Plouter.] intr. To work in an ineffective way; to potter; to dawdle.
   link
    

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