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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Arpenteur is the word we use in French.
Job and title are deifinetly not obsolete. I missed the first thread. Were you just talking about the titles falling out of use Bill.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Ten more "B" words:
Battledore maker______________carpet beater maker
Bell man_____________________town crier
Bellow farmer_________________church organ repair
Belly builder__________________piano maker (harp,strings, and action)
Bender______________________person who cut leather
Berner______________________man in charge of a pack of hounds
Besom maker (easy!)__________broom maker
Bid-stand___________________highway robber
Bird boy____________________ boy hired to protect crops from birds
Blemmer____________________plumber
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Brazier_______________foundryman, iron as well as brass
Brightsmith___________tinsmith
Brogger_____________ woolen merchant
Brownsmith__________worker in copper or brass
Buck washer________A laundress
Bumboat man_______sold fruit, confections, all sorts of things to ships at anchor in harbor
Bunter____________ a rag and bone woman
Butner___________ a button maker
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Battledore maker____________carpet beater maker
I read an old-fashioned book where someone spoke of battledore, and my memory is telling me that it referred to playing badminton. I thought that it meant what was known as the shuttlecock, and now is called the birdie, here. But perhaps it meant the racquet?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I would hate to go back to days before our family acquired a vacuum cleaner, and we had to take rugs out and hang them over an extra sturdy line and beat them to get rid of embedded fine sand. Cleaning a room in those days was so difficult front rooms were typically closed to family, and open only to distinguished visitors, and weddings and funerals. On PEI the red clay is so bad everybody takes shoes off before entering a home. When I told my secretary I had been into front room of a home on PEI, she gasped, and said: "I've known her for twenty years, and have never been invited into her front room!"
Let us rejoice that the battledore makers are long gone.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
What, please, is a bumboat man? I have an extraordinary mental image I really would like to rid myself of.
Bumboat regards,
WW
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear WW: I think I remember seeing it in one of the Hornblower series. Whenever sailing ships came into a harbor and anchored, local entrepreneurs came out in small boats to try to sell them fruit, confections, tobacco, etc..etc. Anything they thought sailors might buy. (The doxies had to wait for sailors to come ashore.)
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
The bumboat man sold fruit and confections? Can't believe there isn't a song about the bumboat man. That's such an evocative, delightful image...
Hmmm...think a parody of "The Candy Man" would be lots of fun to do with the bumboat man... Unfortunately, I can't stand the melody of "The Candy Man" so I wouldn't touch it.
Thanks for the definition, wwh.
Bumboat regards again,
WW
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Some of these names seem a bit corny, but I haven't any way of checking validity of most of them.Too bad they don't amuse as many people as I had hoped.
Cad__________________A person hired to feed and water horses at a coach stop
Caddy butcher_________A horsemeat butcher
Calciner______________Burned bones to make lime
Calender_____________A person who listed documents
Calker_______________An astrologer or magician
Cambist_____________A banker who dealt in notes or bills
Camerist____________A lady's maid
Canter_____________A beggar or vagrant
Canting caller_______An auctioneer
Carnifex___________An executioner or butcher
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