The ending -ster was originally feminine, and applied to trades chiefly carried on by women, e.g. Baxter, Bagster, baker, Brewster, Simister, sempster, Webster, etc., but in process of time the distinction was lost, so that we find Blaxter and Whitster for Blacker, Blakey, and Whiter, both of which, curiously enough, have the same meaning—
"Bleykester or whytster, candidarius" (Prompt. Parv.)—
for this black represents Mid. Eng. bla-c, related to bleak and bleach, and meaning pale—
"Blake, wan of colour, blesme (blême)" (Palsgrave).
Occupative names of French origin are apt to vary according to the period and dialect of their adoption. For Butcher we find also Booker, Bowker, and sometimes the later Bosher, Busher, with the same sound for the ch as in Labouchère, the lady butcher. But Booker may also mean what it appears to mean, as Mid. Eng. bokere is used by Wyclif for the Latin scriba.
Butcher, originally a dealer in goat's flesh, Fr. bouc, has ousted flesher. German still has half a dozen surnames derived from names for this trade, e.g. Fleischer, Fleischmann, [Footnote: Hellenized as Sarkander. This was a favourite trick of German scholars at the Renaissance period. Well-known examples are Melancthon (Schwarzerd), Neander (Neumann).] Metzger, Schlechter; but our flesher has been absorbed by Fletcher, a maker of arrows, Fr. flêche. Fletcher Gate at Nottingham was formerly Flesher Gate. The undue extension of Taylor has already been mentioned (Chapter IV). Another example is Barker, which has swallowed up the Anglo-Fr. berquier, a shepherd, Fr. berger, with the result that the Barkers outnumber the Tanners by three to one
" 'What craftsman are you?' said our King,
'I pray you, tell me now.'
'I am a barker,' quoth the tanner;
'What craftsman art thou?' "
(Edward IV. and the Tanner of Tamworth.)
The name seems to have been applied also to the man who barked trees for the tanner.