Nerve Specialist

A mad doctor, alienist, or psychiatrist.

“‘A nerve specialist with his extensive practice can hardly help taking a rather warped view of humanity.’ I got what she was driving at now. Sir Roderick Glossop, Honoria’s father, is always called a nerve specialist, because it sounds better, but everybody knows that he’s really a sort of janitor to the looney-bin. I mean to say, when your uncle the Duke begins to feel the strain a bit and you find him in the blue drawing-room sticking straws in his hair, old Glossop is the first person you send for. He toddles round, gives the patient the once-over, talks about over-excited nervous systems, and recommends complete rest and seclusion and all that sort of thing. Practically every posh family in the country has called him in at one time or another, and I suppose that, being in that position—I mean constantly having to sit on people’s heads while their nearest and dearest phone to the asylum to send round the wagon—does tend to make a chappie take what you might call a warped view of humanity.”

P. G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves (1923).

Hoplite

Heavy infantry in ancient Greece.

"Solon, the 'Liberator', listened to the complaints of the peasants of Attica who were forced to pay heavy rents to the Eupatrids, and were threatened with servitude for debt. He did away with the horoi, which 'enslaved' the land and forbade a man to mortgage himself or his children. However, despite the reputation which he later acquired in the tradition, he did not really create democracy, and it is almost certain that the assembly of citizens, if it existed at all at that time, was composed only of those among the Athenians who were capable of providing their own armour as hoplites, or heavy infantry."

Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work

[translated by Janet Lloyd] (1969).

Artist

Someone who practices one of the arts, creating works according to their imagination, ideas, and taste.

“When the great revolution against London’s ugliness really starts and yelling hordes of artists and architects, maddened beyond endurance, finally take the law into their own hands and rage through the city burning and destroying, Wallingford Street, West Kensington, will surely not escape the torch. Long since it must have been marked down for destruction. For, though it possesses certain merits of a low practical kind, being inexpensive in the matter of rents and handy for the buses and the Underground, it is a peculiarly beastly little street. Situated in the middle of one of those districts where London breaks out into a sort of eczema of red brick, it consists of two parallel rows of semi-detached villas, all exactly alike, each guarded by a ragged evergreen hedge, each with coloured glass of an extremely regrettable nature let into the panels of the front door, and sensitive young impressionists from the artists’ colony up Holland Park way may sometimes be seen stumbling through it with hands over their eyes, muttering between clenched teeth ‘How long? How long?’”

P.G. Wodehouse, Leave It to Psmith (1924).

Page

A young person who works as a personal attendant for a noble or member of a royal household.

"Where hast thou left that page of thine, That used to serve thy cup of wine?"

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion (1808).

"The Fastolfs were a well-known Norfolk family of many branches, one of which settled at Caister, near Yarmouth, and there John Fastolf was born about 1378. His father had inherited Caister and other manors, and had also bought much property in Norfolk, so that the young Fastolf spent the earliest years of his life in comfortable surroundings, and then probably found himself, as was the custom of the day, at some seven or eight years of age sent to live in the household of a friend or acquaintance, where as a page he would be called upon to perform minor services for his lord and lady. As he waited on them in hall and in bower many important and many trivial details of everyday life and manners would be borne in on him. With good fortune he would learn to read, and even to write; to speak correctly; to play upon some instrument; to dance; to perform simple services with horse and hound."

Six Medieval Men & Women, "Sir John Fastolf," H. S. Bennett (1955).

Superintendents and Workmen

An overseer. Someone responsible for overseeing, controlling, or directing a business.

"These [servants] would I divide into two formes... as the one of super-intendents, surveighors, or work-maisters, the other of workmen."

Thomas Kyd, Househ. Philos. Wks. (1588).

Privy Counselor

One of the private counselors to the king or queen.

"Avarice had likewise a Privy-Counsellor who was always at his Elbow, and whispering something or other in his Ear: The Name of this Privy-Counsellor was Poverty."

Joseph Addison, The Spectator (1711).

Gilder

A decorator who covers other materials with a patina of gold.

"The doing of it, not the manner: that must be private. Many things that seem foul i’ the doing do please, done. A lady should indeed study her face when we think she sleeps; nor when the doors are shut should men be enquiring; all is sacred within then. Is it for us to see their perukes put on, their false teeth, their complexion, their eyebrows, their nails? You see, gilders will not worke, but inclos'd. They must not discover, how little serves, with the helpe of art, to adorne a great deale."

Ben Jonson, The Silent Woman (1609).

Midwife

Someone who helps women delivering babies. An accoucheur.

"I see Queene Mab hath beene with you: She is the Fairies Midwife."

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1592).

Prince

The person of first importance, a king. The recognized son or grandson of a king or queen.

“The kings of the times are reduced to a certain number of types, every one of which corresponds, more or less, to a literary motif. There is the wise and just prince, the prince deceived by evil counsellors, the prince who avenges the honour of his family, the unfortunate prince to whom his servants remain faithful. In the mind of the people political questions are reduced to stories of adventure. Philip the Good knew the political language which the people understands. To convince the Hollanders and Frisians that he was perfectly able to conquer the bishopric of Utrecht, he exhibits, during the festivities of the Hague, in 1456, precious plate to the value of thirty thousand silver marks. Everybody may come and look at it. Amongst other things, two hundred thousand gold lions have been brought from Lille contained in two chests which every one may try to lift up. The demonstration of the solvency of the state took the form of an entertainment at a fair.”

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

Intercessor

An intermediary. A mediator. Someone who intervenes.

"On man’s behalf Patron or Intercessor none appeared."

Milton, Paradise Lost (1667).

Tingers and Untingers

Someone who raises and fastens the body of a cart after its contents have been dumped.

“There were also eight tingers, whose special office was to lift up the carts immediately after they were unloaden, and to make fast their tackle. There attended also men called untingers, to loose and undo the tackle before the unloading.”

Abraham Fleming, continuing Raphael Holinshed, The firste volume of the chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande (1587).

Money-Lender

Someone who lends money, especially at exorbitant interest rates.

"The moment I buy three or four pounds of plate,

A new slave or a woollen toga, my mate

Sextus the money-lender, whom I've known

For donkey's years, assumes I want a loan,

Panics and takes precautions. I soon hear

His growled aside (intended for my ear):

'I owe Phoebus four thousand, there's eleven

Due to Philetus, and Secundus's seven...

I've nothing in my strong-box left to lend.'

Oh, he's a master of the arts, my friend.

To say no, Sextus, when a pal applies

Is cruel. But before he even tries...!"

Martial, The Epigrams (85 AD).

Tire-Maid

A maid in ancient Rome who helped her employer with her attire—hair, makeup, clothing, jewelry. A dressmaker.

“Tire-maids hidden among these

Drew close their loosened bodices.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Dante at Verona (1871).

Ostler

Someone who takes care of horses at an inn. A stableman. A groom.

"Let him turn ostler, and keep himself."

George Eliot, Silas Marner (1861).

Forestaller

Someone who buys up goods before they can be sold on the open market, either to corner the market or to keep prices high by limiting the supply.

“The evils of stock manipulation were recognized in the common law in its ancient proscription of the offenses of ‘engrossing,’ ‘regrating,’ and ‘forestalling,’ but these charges had long fallen into disuse in American practice. The question of whether stock manipulation constituted common-law fraud was moot before 1930.”

John Brooks, Once in Golconda (1970).

Clockmaker

A fourth-dimensionalist.

“Having heard the half-baked bids to find longitude in the sound of cannon blasts, in compass needles heated by fire, in the moon’s motion, in the sun’s elevation, and what-else-have-you, Thacker developed a new clock ensconced in a vacuum chamber and declared it the best method of all: ‘In a word, I am satisfied that my Reader begins to think that the Phonometers, Pyrometers, Selenometers, Heliometers, and all the Meters are not worthy to be compared with my Chronometer.’ Thacker’s witty neologism is apparently the first coinage of the word chronometer. What he said in 1714, perhaps in jest, later gained acceptance as the perfect moniker for the marine timekeeper.”

Dava Sobel, Longitude (1995).

Molendinarii and Pistores

In ancient Rome, millers and bakers.

"Until nearly the end of the fourth century, the bakers were also millers. But in the last decades of the century the first water-mills appeared on the slopes of the Janiculum, and from then on the documents make a distinction between the millers, molendinarii, and the pistores. The bakers were responsible not only for making the bread, but apparently also for distributing it. Under Aurelian the daily ration was nearly one and a half pounds of top quality bread. Under Constantine the quantity was doubled but the quality deteriorated, and during the second half of the century it was no longer distributed free but sold at a very low price. It has been estimated that 200,000 people benefited from these distributions."

Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work [translated by Janet Lloyd] (1969).

Sushi Vendor

Someone who sells raw fish and rice.

"Their mistress was in a frightful rage. Kyushichi's explanations had no effect on her at all, and the poor, guiltless fellow was finally discharged, without waiting for the regular biannual replacement time of September fifth. Later he worked several terms in a wholesale house called Bizen-ya in Kitano and married a drifter named Longie of Eighthbridge. Now he earns a living as a sushi vendor on Willow Lane and has simply forgotten about Osen."

Ihara Saikaku, Five Women Who Loved Love (1686).

Rhapsodist

In Ancient Greece, a reciter of epic poems, especially one of a school of persons whose occupation it was to recite the poems of Homer.

"When the earliest poetry of Greece had no surer abiding place than the memories and tongues of the Rhapsodists."

Henry Reed, Lectures on English Literature (1854).

Harlot

A male menial, also a juggler, buffoon, or entertainer. From Old French, "herlot," meaning vagabond, related to the Old Italian, "arletto;" (of uncertain origin). A prostitute.

"King Edwarde woulde say he had three concubines... the thirde the holyest harlot in the realme."

More in Richard Grafton, Chronicle (1543).

Despot

Originally, a ruler, lord, or prince. Later used in the sense of a tyrant.

"To their favourite sons or brothers, they imparted the more lofty appellation of Lord or Despot, which was illustrated with new ornaments and prerogatives, and placed immediately after the person of the emperor himself."

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1788).

Tapisser

An artist who weaves cloth with figures on it. A tapestry weaver or tapestry maker.

"The most lucrative trade of the fifteenth century was that of 'tapister.'"

Parker, Turner's Domestic Architecture (1859).

Phrenologist

One skilled in phrenology, the scientific study or theory that the mental powers of the individual consist of separate faculties, each of which has its organ and location in a definite region of the surface of the brain, the size or development of which is commensurate with the development of the particular faculty; hence, the study of the external conformation of the cranium as an index to the development and position of these organs, and thus of the degree of development of the various faculties (OED).

“More than most St. Andreans—more than his father—Tommy was a modern, even at sixteen. Unlike the phrenologist who taught classes in town, he did not believe that the bumps on people’s heads told their futures. Unlike the fish wives at the bottom of North Street, he did not believe that the souls of drowned sailors lived in seagulls.”

Kevin Cook, Tommy’s Honor (2007).

Teemer

Someone who pours, unloads, or empties coal or grain.

“Weeping to see their sons degenerate:

His Romans taking up the teemer’s trade,

The Britons jigging it in masquerade.”

Andrew Marvell in The Roxburghe Ballads (1667).