English

Noun

pure finder ‎(plural pure finders)

1. (obsolete) Someone who collected dog faeces for sale to tanneries (which used it as a siccative for bookbinding leather). Undertaken by old women in Britain in the 18th century. (Reference: Robert Hughes, The Fatal Shore, 1987, paperback 1996 ISBN 1-86046-150-6 chapter 1 page 21.)

   1851: The pure-finders meet with a ready market for all the dogs’-dung they are able to collect, at the numerous tanyards in Bermondsey — Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, volume 2, page 142

2. Used other than as an idiom: see pure,‎ finder.

   2002: As one commentator has noted, although a pure finder may "induce the purchase or sale of" a security within the meaning of Section 15(a)(1), he or she is not normally a "broker" because he or she effects no transactions. — Howard S. Meyers, Finder's fee agreements: Potential pitfalls and considerations, The Attorney-CPA, July 2002