Mercer

Someone who buys and sells silk, velvet, and other fancy material.

"Then is there heere one Mr. Caper, at the suite of Master Three-Pile the Mercer, for some four suits of Peach-colour'd Satin."

William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603).

Fogger

A monopolist or usurer. A great merchant. A person given to underhanded practices for the sake of gain. Chiefly used to mean an unscrupulous lawyer.

"The baser sorte of people are verie litigious by meanes wherof the Foggers and Pettie Lawiers gett unto themselves great advantage."

John Norden, Speculum Britanniae; Cornwall (1610).

Liturgist

A priest who reads aloud or recites religious scripture, prayers, or religious services.

"The crown princess was very young and very delicate, a worry to everyone. She fell ill in the Second Month. The soothsayers ordered an immediate change of air. Not wanting to send her a great distance away, Genji moved her to the Akashi lady's northwest quarter. It had two large wings and several galleries along which altars were put up. Prayers and incantations echoed solemnly through the quarter as famous and successful liturgists set about their work. The Akashi lady was perhaps the most apprehensive of all, for her whole past and future seemed to be coming up for judgment."

Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (11th Century).

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.

A Waithman Forloppin

An "outlaw" hunting in the forests. A poacher.

"Me thocht a Turk of Tartary lay forloppin in Lumbardy, full long in waithman weid."

William Dunbar, Poems (1500-20).

Dream Interpreter

Someone who can tell what the significance of a dream is.

"One has had an upsetting dream and wonders what it can mean. In great anxiety one consults a dream-interpreter, who informs one that it has no special significance."

Sei Shonagon, "Pleasing Things," The Pillow Book (11th Century).

Lutist

Someone who plays the lute.

"People are always saying that the most important thing is tact and forbearance in the use of the left hand. That is important, of course, but a misplaced bridge can be a disaster, and for a lady a gentle touch with the right hand is very important too. Come, now, let me hear you play. A lute, someone!"

Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (11th Century).

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.

Tasker

Someone paid for completing a task rather than by the hour or day. A piece-worker. Also, a laborer who uses a flail to thresh corn.

"If our greedy Patrons hold us to such hard conditions, they will make some of us at last turne Taskers, Costermongers, sell Ale or worse."

Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621).

Guerrilla

A fighter who attacks an enemy more or less on his own or as part of a small contingent of soldiers.

"Guerrilla: does more damage to the enemy than the regular army."

Flaubert, Dictionary of Platitudes (1880).

[Translation by J. I. Rodale (1954).]

Head Hunter

Hunters who take the heads of enemies they kill in battle and which they preserve as trophies.

"Some Dyaks have stated that they would give up head-hunting, were it not for the taunts and gibes of their wives and sweethearts."

H. Keppel, Ind. Archip. (1853).

Barmaid

A woman who serves customers in a tavern or coffee house.

“‘Lookye, wife, a handsome wench in our way of business is as proftable as at the bar of a Temple coffee-house, who looks upon it as her livelihood to grant every liberty but one.’”

John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1728).

Player

An actor.

"Utz reminded me how the Italian players--the real ones!--had been masters of extempore who would decide what to play, and how to play it, a mere five minutes before the curtain rose."

Bruce Chatwin, Utz (1988).

Tithing Man

A collector of tithes, a tax of one-tenth. An overseer of tenants during the Middle Ages.

"The frankpledge or tithing system common at the time divided the tenants into groups (originally of ten), each group being responsible for the conduct and discipline of its individual members. Once a year the lord of the manor held his 'view of frankpledge', at which minor offences such as brewing without licence, assaults between neighbours, neglect of cleansing ditches and abuse of communal rights were dealt with. The tenant responsible for his group was known as the tithing man, and he reported cases such as the above, or told of boys who had now reached twelve years of age, or of newcomers to the manor who ought to be formally placed in his tithing. The members of the tithing were held responsible one for another to a considerable degree and could be fined for not reporting offences, or for neglecting to make inquiries as ordered by the court."

Six Medieval Men & Women, "Richard Bradwater," H. S. Bennett (1955).

Grand Sergeanty

Someone who held his lands or tenements by virtue of doing some special service to the king in person.

“The ‘grand sergeanty’ of the King of England comprised a dignitary whose office it was to hold the king’s head when he crossed the Channel and was suffering with sea-sickness. A certain John Baker held this office in 1442, and after his death it passed to his two daughters.”

J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (1924).

Macer

A religious or governmental functionary who carries a ceremonial metal staff or sceptre resembling a mace. Also the term for a swindler.

"A well known macer, who was celebrated for slipping an 'old gentleman' (a long card) into the pack."

Steinmetz, Gaming Table (1870).

Outrunner

A servant who runs ahead of a carriage or an entourage.

"With little to relieve the monotony, Ukifune sat gazing into the heavily wooded hills. Only the fireflies along the garden brook served to remind her of the Uji days. From far beyond the eaves that looked out over the valley came voices of outrunners cautiously clearing the way, and soon torches, large numbers of them, were tossing among the trees. What might this commotion mean? the other nuns were asking as they came to the veranda. 'Whoever it is, he certainly does have himself a big escort.'"

Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (10th Century).

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.

Rumpadder

A highwayman. A robber.

"Rum-padders, the better sort of Highwaymen, well Mounted and Armed."

B. E., A new dictionary of the terms ancient and modern of the canting crew (1700).

Cooper

A craftsman who makes and repairs wooden vessels formed of staves and hoops, as casks, buckets, or tubs.

"Any work for the Cooper?...

Whene'er a vessel gets a bruise

By slipping off the stooper,

Old Farrell I would have you choose,

As soon as any Cooper."

Cries of London (1784).

Master of the Seven-Stringed Koto

A musician of extraordinary skill.

"'It is very difficult indeed to master any instrument,' he continued. 'The possibilities seem infinite and nothing seems complete and finished. But there are few these days who even try, and I suppose it should be cause for satisfaction when someone masters any one small aspect. The seven-stringed koto is the unmanageable one. We are told that in ancient times there were many who mastered the whole tradition of the instrument, and made heaven and earth their own, and softened the hearts of demons and gods. Taking into this one instrument all the tones and overtones of all the others, they found joy in the depths of sorrow and transformed the base and mean into the fine and proud, and gained wealth and universal fame. There was a time, before the tradition had been established in Japan, when the most enormous trouble was required of anyone who sought to learn the art. He must spend years in strange lands and give up everything, and even then only a few came back with what they had gone out to seek.'"

Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (11th Century).

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.

Ratcatcher

An exterminator of unwanted and wily rodents.

“The citizen led the tom to the militia, dragging the poor beast by his front paws, bound with the green tie, and forcing him with gentle kicks to walk on his hind legs. ‘You,’ scolded the citizen, accompanied by a gang of whistling urchins, ‘quit, quit fooling! It won’t get you anywhere! Be kind enough to walk like everybody else!’ The black tom merely rolled his eyes like a martyr. The poor beast is indebted for his rescue first to the militia, and second, to his mistress, a respectable aged widow. As soon as the tom was delivered to the precinct, the officers found that the citizen reeked most revoltingly of alcohol, which cast immediate doubt on his testimony. Meantime, the old woman, who had learned from neighbors that her tom had been arrested, rushed to the militia and just made it in the nick of time. She gave the tom the most flattering testimonial, explained that she had known him for five years, since his kittenhood, vouched for him as for her own self, and proved that he had never done any evil and had never been in Moscow. He had been born in Armavir, and it was there that he grew up and learned his honest trade of catching mice. The tom was unbound and returned to his mistress—true, after having had a taste of trouble and learning from experience the meaning of error and slander.”

Mikhael Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (1928-1940).

Streetcar Conductor

Someone who gets paid to ride the streetcar all day.

“‘But where are the guests?’ Margarita asked Koroviev.

‘They’ll be here, Queen, they’ll be here soon. There will be no shortage of guests. And, really, I would rather chop wood than receive them here on this landing.’

‘Chop wood?’ echoed the loquacious tom. ‘I would work as a streetcar conductor, and there is nothing in the world that’s worse than such a job!’”

Mikhael Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (1928-1940).

Tycoon

A great prince (from Chinese ta great + kiun prince). The shogun of Japan was decribed to foreigners as the tycoon.

"There never was but one emperor in Japan, the Shogun was military usurper, and the bombastic title 'Tycoon' a diplomatic fraud."

William E. Griffis, North American Review (1875).

The Emperor of Russia

The Czar.

"I particularly longed to acquire the least trifle of notice from the big stormy mate, and I was on the alert for an opportunity to do him a service to that end. It came at last. The riotous pow-wow of setting a spar was going on down on the forecastle, and I went down there and stood around in the way--or mostly skipping out of it--till the mate suddenly roared a general order for somebody to bring him a capstan bar. I sprang to his side and said: 'Tell me where it is--I'll fetch it!' If a rag-picker had offered to do a diplomatic service for the Emperor of Russia, the monarch could not have been more astounded than the mate was. He even stopped swearing. He stood and stared down at me. It took him ten seconds to scrape his disjointed remains together again. Then he said impressively: 'Well, if this don't beat h--l!" and turned to his work with the air of a man who had been confronted with a problem too abstruse for solution."

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883).

Oculist

A doctor or surgeon who treats diseases and other problems with patients' eyes.

"It is observed by professed Oculists, that whereas all creatures have but foure muscles to turne their eyes round about, man hath a fifth to pull his eyes up to heaven."

Richard Brathwait, The English Gentleman (1630).

Master of Ceremonies

Someone who presides over or does the introductions for some theatrical performance or spectacle, such as a cabaret or circus.

“For example, George Bengalsky recovered and left the hospital after three months, but he was compelled to resign from his job at the Variety Theater, and that at the best time, when the public besieged the theater for tickets. The memory of black magic and its exposé was still too fresh. Bengalsky resigned from the theater, for he realized that it was too painful to face two thousand persons nightly and be subjected to inevitable recognition and a barrage of mocking questions as to whether he was happier with or without his head. Besides, the master of ceremonies had lost a good deal of his cheerful disposition, so necessary to a man of his profession. He was left with a troublesome and distressing habit of falling into a state of anxiety in the spring, when the moon was full, suddenly clutching at his neck, looking around fearfully, and crying. These fits were transitory. Nevertheless, they made it impossible for him to continue in his former occupation, and the master of ceremonies retired and went to live on his savings, which, according to his modest calculations, should last him for fifteen years.”

Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (1928-40).