Fouler - Fowler

Do not confuse the spelling fouler with Fowler. They sound exactly the same, but have different meanings.

• Fouler is the comparative form of the adjective foul. It means 'more dirty'.
• Fowler is a word less used these days than it was, as it labels a job that no longer exists professionally. It means 'one who catches (or shoots) [wild]fowl, or birds'. Fowlers (or wildfowlers) nowadays are those who shoot wild duck, geese, etc, for sport as much as for money.
  • Fowler has also become an an occupational surname. I it is invariably linked, in the minds of the writers of AWE, with the great writer in the early twentieth century of usage guides, Henry Watson Fowler.