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The original thread was getting rather long, and I have a lot more material for Faldage to mock. Look at this list of just items starting with "A"
Amber cutter a person who cut ambergris
Ankle beater a young person who helped drive cattle to market
Anatto maker a person who worked in the manufacture of dyes for paint or printing
Antigropelos maker a person who made waterproof leggings
Apiarana a beekeeper
Alnager an official who examined the quality of woolen goods, and stamped seal of approval
Archiator a physician
Argolet a mounted bowman
Arkwright a skilled craftsman who produced wooden chests or coffers
Arpenteur a land surveyor
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Slightly changing focus here, let me ask all of you how you pronounce 'cooper' and 'hooper'. (As is well known, a cooper makes barrels, or, more specifically, he fashions the staves and heads and assembles them into a barrel, cask, hogshead, bucket, soe, etc. with hoops which are made (or used to be) by a hooper from lath.)
In Maryland, both of these words, as well as 'hoop', are pronounced by older people, or by people named Cooper or Hooper, with the 'oo' the same as in 'foot', not as in 'soon', as is the case elsewhere in the U.S. so far as I know, and by younger people.
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Back to the original focus. There are a number of words ending in '-wright' -- wheelwright, cartwright, to name two, which are preserved in family names, as are many occupations.
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enthusiast
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let me ask all of you how you pronounce 'cooper'
And what's the correct pronunciation of William Cowper, the British poet? I vaguely remember hearing it pronounced Cooper.
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Pooh-Bah
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And what's the correct pronunciation of William Cowper, the British poet? I vaguely remember hearing it pronounced Cooper.That is the way we were taught to pronounce his name in Eng. Lit. classes. Cooper and Hooper I would pronounce as in loose or Lew, but not in few. But just as the pigeon coos. But not how I would in the wood(pigeon). 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Here come the "B's":
Backmaker_______________________same as cooper
Ballast heaver____________________loaded stones into bilge of ships to improve sailing behaviour
Baller up________________________assisted potter my making balls of clay for potter to shape
Band filer_______________________metal worker in gun factory
Bandster_______________________one who bound sheaves after reapers
Bang Begger (slang)______________a constable with a strong staff
Banker (not what you might think)__a ditch digger who piled dirt on both sides of ditch
Banquetter (surprise)_____________a broker or banker
Bar Keeper______________________highway toll collector
Barker__________________________a tanner, and also a family name
Barkman________________________a barge man
Beadle_________________________a town crier, also kept order in church
Beaver_________________________a hat maker
Bedman________________________a sexton - a sexton (not sex by the ton) rang bells, dug graves,etc.
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old hand
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Arpenteur a land surveyorDear Dr. Bill, I know my father has been feeling, of late, like he has an obsolete occupation. The job market can be tough for a guy his age who wasn't educated in Canada, even though he's been working here 30 years. But he is working today - in fact, as we speak (type?) - so I don't think land surveyors are quite obsolete, just yet. There are plenty of them around, without them you wouldn't know where to build your house or your road. Or your movie theatre, or your new subdivision, or your train tracks... 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oooh, ooh ooooh. Cain't wait till you gits to the O's.. One of my favorites that, now that everthang is computerized, is parbly obsolete by now. Offset stripper.
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Dear Bean: But does your Dad call himself an "arpenteur"?
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old hand
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But does your Dad call himself an "arpenteur"?
No. But the definition only says "land surveyor" rather than naming a particular subcategory that is obsolete. I was just arguing that the general profession of land surveyors is still around, for sure! And sadly thinking of how odd it is that it was named in this thread, since he's been having many days in the last few years where he's certainly felt obsolete...poor fella...
In Québec he might be called an arpenteur. In Italy he's called a "Geometra" (JOH-meh-trah) and it's used as a prefix to his last name, just as we use "doctor". I love the Italian word for it - when you hear it, there's no doubt that his job is to measure things!
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Carpal Tunnel
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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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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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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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Carpal Tunnel
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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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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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Carpal Tunnel
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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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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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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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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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Dear Dr. Bill,
I hope you know you've made some goofy posts, here. (Just trying to be obliging...)
Love,
Jackie
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There were bumboat women, too, and there is at least one song about a bumboat woman, which goes, "I'm called Little Buttercup, sweet little Buttercup, ...". She is, of course, one of the principle characters in HMS Pinafore.
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Dear BY: Come to think of it, I made a purchase from a bumboat woman in the Funafuti atoll, in WWII. She came out to the troopship in an outrigger canoe paddled by a little wimp. She was so fat her buttocks hung oveer both gunnels. Her only merchandise was cowrie shells, the bottom of which strongly suggests the female pudenda. She had them singly and in necklaces. She would give one shell for one buck. I got a whole necklace for a bottle of Pinaud aftershave that I had no dared use, it was so highly scented. But Mama loved it. She nodded her approval so vigorously I thought she would tip the outrigger over, and hitched a large necklace to my line. My wife threw it away because she thought it indecent.
Funafuti is now called Tuvalu, and is worried that rising sea level will put it under water.
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caster
chaloner
chandler
chanty man
chapeler
connor
chapman
chaser
clicker
clower
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