The Romance of Names Part 26

While a Pilgrim acquired his name by a journey to any shrine, a Palmer must originally have been to the Holy Land, and a Romer to Rome. But the frequent occurrence of Palmer suggests that it was often a nickname for a pious fraud. We have a doublet of Pilgrim in Pegram, though this may come from the name Peregrine, the etymology being the same, viz. Lat. peregrines, a foreigner.

CHAPTER XVIII. TRADES AND CRAFTS

"What d'ye lack, n.o.ble sir?--What d'ye lack, beauteous madam?"

(Fortunes of Nigel, ch. i.)

In the Middle Ages there was no great cla.s.s of retail dealers distinct from the craftsmen who fas.h.i.+oned objects. The same man made and sold in almost every case. There were of course general dealers, such as the French Marchant or his English equivalent the Chapman (Chapter II), the Dutch form of which has given us the Norfolk name Copeman.

The Broker is now generally absorbed by the local Brooker. There were also the itinerant merchants, of whom more anon; but in the great majority of cases the craftsman made and sold one article, and was, in fact, strictly forbidden to wander outside his special line.

ARCHERY

Fuller tells us that--

"England were but a fling, Save for the crooked stick and the gray-goose-wing,"

and the importance of the bow and arrow is shown by the number of surnames connected with their manufacture. We find the Bowyer, Bower or Bowmaker, who trimmed and shaped the wand of yew, [Footnote: This is also one source of Boyer, but the very common French surname Boyer means ox-herd.] the Fletcher (Chapter XV), Arrowsmith, or Flower, who prepared the arrow--

"His bowe he bente and sette therinne a flo" (H, 264)--

[Footnote: The true English word for arrow, Anglo-Sax. fla.]

and the Tipper, Stringer, and Horner, who attended to smaller details, though the Tipper and Stringer probably tipped and strung other things, and the Horner, though he made the horn nocks of the long-bow, also made horn cups and other objects.

The extent to which specialization was carried is shown by the trade description of John Darks, longbowstringemaker, who died in 1600. The Arblaster may have either made or used the arblast or cross-bow, medieval Lat. arcubalista, bow-sling. His name has given the imitative Alabaster. We also find the shortened Ballister and Balestier, from which we have Bannister (Chapter III). Or, to take an example from comestibles, a Flanner limited his activity to the making of flat cakes called flans or flawns, from Old Fr. flaon (flan), a word of Germanic origin, ultimately related to flat

"He that is hanged in May will eat no flannes in Midsummer."

(The Abbot, ch. x.x.xiii.)

Some names have become strangely restricted in meaning, e.g. Mercer, now almost limited to silk, was a name for a dealer in any kind of merchandise (Lat. merx); in Old French it meant pedlar--

"Mercier, a good pedler, or meane haberdasher of small wares"

(Cotgrave).

On the other hand Chandler, properly a candle-maker, is now used in the compounds corn-chandler and s.h.i.+p's chandler. Of all the -mongers the only common survival is Ironmonger or Iremonger, with the variant Isemonger, from Mid. Eng. isen, iron. Ironmonger is also dealer in eggs, Mid. Eng. eiren.

CLOTHIERS

The wool trade occupied a very large number of workers and has given a good many surnames. The Shearer was distinct from the Shearman or Sherman, the former operating on the sheep and the latter on the nap of the cloth. For Comber we also have the older Kempster, and probably Kimber, from the Mid. Eng. kemben, to comb, which survives in "unkempt". The Walker, Fuller, and Tucker, all did very much the same work of "waulking," or trampling, the cloth. All three words are used in Wyclif's Bible in variant renderings of Mark ix. 3. Fuller is from Fr. fouler, to trample, and Tucker is of uncertain origin. Fuller is found in the south and south-east, Tucker in the west, and Walker in the north. A Dyer was also called Dyster, and the same trade is the origin of the Latin-looking Dexter (Chapter II). From Mid. Eng.

litster, a dyer, a word of Scandinavian origin, comes Lister, as in Lister Gate, Nottingham. With these goes the Wadman, who dealt in, or grew, the dye-plant called woad; cf. Flaxman. A beater of flax was called Swingler--

"Fleyl, swyngyl, verga, tribulum" (Prompt. Parv.).

A Tozer teased the cloth with a teasel. In Mid. English the verb is taesen or tosen, so that the names Teaser and Towser, sometimes given to bull-terriers, are doublets. Secker means sack-maker.

We have already noticed the predominance of Taylor. This is the more remarkable when we consider that the name has as rivals the native Seamer and Shapster and the imported Parmenter, Old Fr. parmentier, a maker of parements, now used chiefly of facings on clothes. But another, and more usual, origin of Parmenter, Parminter, Parmiter, is parchmenter, a very important medieval trade. The word would correspond to a Lat. pergamentarius, which has given also the German surname Berminter. Several old German cities had a Permenterga.s.se, i.e. parchment-makers' street. A Pilcher made pilches, i.e. fur cloaks, an early loan-word from Vulgar Lat. pellicia (pellis, skin).

Chaucer's version of

"Till May is out, ne'er cast a clout"

is

"After greet heet cometh colde; No man caste his pilche away."

Another name connected with clothes is Chaucer, Old Fr. chaussier, a hosier (Lat. calceus, boot), while Admiral Hozier's Ghost reminds us of the native word. The oldest meaning of hose seems to have been gaiters. It ascended in Tudor times to the dignity of breeches (cf.

trunk-hose), the meaning it has in modern German. Now it has become a tradesman's euphemism for the improper word stocking, a fact which led a friend of the writer's, imperfectly acquainted with German, to ask a gifted lady of that nationality if she were a Blauhose. A Chaloner or Chawner dealt in shalloon, Mid. Eng. chalons, a material supposed to have been made at Chalons-sur-Marne--

"And in his owene chambre hem made a bed, With sheetes and with chalons faire y-spred."

(A. 4139.)

Ganter or Gaunter is Fr. gantier, glove-maker.

METAL WORKERS

Some metal-workers have already been mentioned in connection with Smith (Chapter IV), and elsewhere. The French Fevre, from Lat. faber, is found as Feaver. Fearon comes from Old Fr, feron, ferron, smith.

Face le ferrun, i.e. Boniface (Chapter III) the smith, lived in Northampton in the twelfth century. This is an example of the French use of -on as an agential suffix. Another example is Old Fr. charton, or charreton, a waggoner, from the Norman form of which we have Carton. In Scriven, from Old Fr. escrivain (ecrivain), we have an isolated agential suffix. The English form is usually lengthened to Scrivener. In Ferrier, for farrier, the traditional spelling has prevailed over the p.r.o.nunciation, but we have the latter in Farrar.

Ferrier sometimes means ferryman, and Farrar has absorbed the common Mid. English nickname Fayrhayr. Aguilar means needle-maker, Fr.

aiguille, but Pinner is more often official (Chapter XIX). Culler, Fr. coutelier, Old Fr. coutel, knife, and Spooner go together, but the fork is a modern fad. Poynter is another good example of the specialization of medieval crafts: the points were the metal tags by which the doublet and hose were connected. Hence, the play on words when Falstaff is recounting his adventure with the men in buckram--

Fal. "Their points being broken--"

Poins. "Down fell their hose."

(I Henry IV., ii, 4.)

Latimer, Latner sometimes means a worker in latten, a mixed metal of which the etymological origin is unknown. The Pardoner--

"Hadde a croys of latoun ful of stones" (A, 699).

For the change from -n to -m we may compare Lorimer for Loriner, a bridle-maker, belonging ultimately to Lat. lorum, "the reyne of a brydle" (Cooper). But Latimer comes also from Latiner, a man skilled in Latin, hence an interpreter, Sir John Mandeville tells us that, on the way to Sinai--

"Men alleweys fynden Latyneres to go with hem in the contrees."

The immortal Bowdler is usually said to take his name from the art of puddling, or buddling, iron ore. But, as this process is comparatively modern, it is more likely that the name comes from the same verb in its older meaning of making impervious to water by means of clay. Monier and Minter are both connected with coining, the former through French and the latter from Anglo-Saxon, both going back to Lat. moneta, [Footnote: On the curiously accidental history of this word see the Romance of Words, ch. x.] mint. Conner, i.e. coiner, is now generally swallowed up by the Irish Connor.

Leadbitter is for Leadbeater. The name Hamper is a contraction of hanapier, a maker of hanaps, i.e. goblets. Fr. hanap is from Old High Ger. hnapf (Napf), and shows the inability of French to p.r.o.nounce initial hn- without inserting a vowel: cf. harangue from Old High Ger.

hring. There is also a Mid. Eng. nap, cup, representing the cognate Anglo-Sax. hnaep, so that the name Napper may sometimes be a doublet of Hamper, though it is more probably for Napier (Chapter I) or Knapper (Chapter XII). The common noun hamper is from hanapier in a sense something like plate-basket. With metal-workers we may also put Furber or Frobisher, i.e. furbisher, of armour, etc. Poyser, from poise, scales, is official. Two occupative names of Celtic origin are Gow, a smith, as in The Fair Maid of Perth, and Caird, a tinker--