When we come to names which indicate office or trade, we have to distinguish between those that are practically nicknames, such as King, Duke, Bishop, Cæsar[133] (Julius Cæsar was a famous cricketer of the old school), and those that are to be taken literally. Many callings now obsolete have left traces in our surnames. The very common name Chapman reminds us that this was once the general term for a dealer (see p. [67]), one who spends his time in chaffering or "chopping and changing." The grocer, or engrosser, i.e., the man who bought wholesale, Fr. en gros,[134] came too late to supplant the family name Spicer. Bailey, Old Fr. bailif (bailli), represents all sorts of officials from a Scotch magistrate to a man in possession. Bayliss seems to be formed from it like Williams from William. Chaucer, Old Fr. chaucier, now replaced by chaussetier, "a hosier, or hose-maker" (Cotgrave), is probably obsolete as an English surname. Mr Homer's ancestors made helmets, Fr. heaume. Jenner is for engenour, engineer (see gin, p. [65]). In Ferrier traditional spelling seems to have triumphed over popular pronunciation (farrier), but the latter appears in Farrar. Chaucer's somonour survives as Sumner. Ark was once a general name for a bin, hence the name Arkwright. Nottingham still has a Fletcher Gate, Lister Gate, and Pilcher Gate. It is not surprising that the trade of fletcher, Old Fr. fleschier (Fléchier), arrow-maker, should be obsolete. The Fletchers have absorbed also the fleshers, i.e. butchers, which explains why they so greatly outnumber the Bowyers (see p. [178]), Boyers, etc. Lister, earlier littester, gave way to dighester, whence the name Dexter, well known in Nottingham, and this is now replaced by dyer. A Pilcher made pilches, or mantles; cf. the cognate Fr. name Pelissier, a maker of pelisses.[135] Kiddier was once equivalent to pedlar, from kid, a basket. Sailors still speak of the bread-kid. For the name Wait, see p. [76]. The ancestor of the Poyser family made scales (poises), or was in charge of a public balance. Faulkner, falconer, Foster, Forster, forester, and Warner, warrener, go together. With the contraction of Warner we may compare Marner, mariner. Crowther means fiddler. The obsolete crowd, a fiddle, is of Celtic origin. It gave Old Fr. rote, the name of the instrument played by the medieval minstrels—
"Saxon minstrels and Welsh bards were extracting mistuned dirges from their harps, crowds, and rotes."
(Ivanhoe, Ch. 41.)
Kemp is an old English word for warrior, champion. It represents, like Ger. kämpfen, to fight, a very early loan from Lat. campus, in the sense of battle-field.
OBSOLETE CALLINGS
Pinder, the man in charge of the pound or pinfold, was the name of a famous wicket-keeper of the last century. The still more famous cricketing name of Trumper means one who blows the trump. Cf. Horner and Corner, which have, however, alternative origins, a maker of horn cups and a coroner[136] respectively. A dealer in shalloon (see p. [47]) was a Chaloner or Chawner. Parminter, a tailor, is as obsolete as its Old French original parmentier, a maker of parements, deckings, from parer, Lat. parare, to prepare. A member of the Parmentier family popularised the cultivation of the potato in France just before the Revolution, hence potage Parmentier, potato soup. The white tawer still plies his trade, but is hardly recognisable in Whittier. Massinger is a corruption of messenger. The Todhunter, or fox-hunter, used to get twelve pence per fox-head from the parish warden. Coltman is simple, but Runciman, the man in charge of the runcies or rouncies, is less obvious. Rouncy, a nag, is a common word in Mid. English. It comes from Old Fr. roncin (roussin), and is probably a derivative of Ger. Ross, horse. The Spanish form is rocin, "a horse or jade" (Minsheu, 1623), whence Don Quixote's charger Rocin-ante, "a jade formerly."
A park keeper is no longer called a Parker, nor a maker of palings and palisades a Palliser. An English sea-king has immortalised the trade of the Frobisher, or furbisher, and a famous bishop bore the appropriate name of Latimer, for Latiner. With this we may compare Lorimer, for loriner, harness-maker, a derivative, through Old French, of Lat. lorum, "a thong of leather; a coller or other thing, wherewith beastes are bounden or tyed; the reyne of a brydle" (Cooper). The Loriners still figure among the London City Livery Companies, as do also the Bowyers, Broderers, Fletchers (see p. [176]), Horners (see p. [177]), Pattenmakers, Poulters and Upholders (see p. [63]). Scriven, Old Fr. escrivain (écrivain), is now usually extended to Scrivener. For Cator see p. [63]. In some of the above cases the name may have descended from a female, as we have not usually a separate word for women carrying on trades generally practised by men. In French there is a feminine form for nearly every occupation, hence such names as Labouchère, the lady butcher, or the butcher's wife.
The meaning of occupative names is not always on the surface. It would, for instance, be rash to form hasty conclusions as to the pursuits of Richard Kisser, whose name occurs in medieval London records. He probably made cuisses,[137] thigh armour, Fr. cuisse, thigh, Lat. coxa. A Barker employed bark for tanning purposes. Booker is a doublet of Butcher. A Cleaver was, in most cases, a mace-bearer, Old Fr. clavier (Clavier is a common family name in France) from Lat. clava, a club. He may, however, have sometimes been a porter, as Old Fr. clavier also means key-bearer, Lat. clavis, a key. A Croker, or Crocker, sold crocks, i.e., pottery. A Lander, or Launder, was a washer-man, Fr. lavandier. A Sloper made "slops," i.e., loose upper garments, overalls. A Reeder or Reader thatched with reeds. A Walker walked, but within a circumscribed space. He was also called a Fuller, Fr. fouler, to trample, or a Tucker, from a verb which perhaps meant once to "tug" or "twitch." In the following passage some manuscripts have toukere for walkere—
"And his clothis ben maad schyninge and white ful moche as snow, and which maner clothis a fullere, or walkere of cloth, may not make white on erthe."
(Wyclif, Mark, ix. 2.)