The Penurious Warehouseman

Someone who owns or works in a warehouse. A wholesale merchant.

"His richest warehouse is a greasie pocket,

And two pence in tobacco still does stocke it."

Samuel Rowlands, The Knave of Spades (1612).

Virginia Woolf on an Entomologist

A scientist who studies insects.

“‘English entomologists care little or nothing for objects of practical importance,’ she exclaimed suddenly. ‘Take this question of flour infestation—I can’t say how many grey hairs that hasn’t grown me.’

‘Figuratively speaking, Miss Ormerod,’ said Dr. Lipscomb, for her hair was still raven black.

‘Well, I do believe all good work is done in concert,’ Miss Ormerod continued. ‘It is often a great comfort to me to think that.’

‘It’s beginning to rain,’ said Dr. Lipscomb. ‘How will your enemies like that, Miss Ormerod?’

‘Hot or cold, wet or dry, insects always flourish!’ cried Miss Ormerod, energetically sitting up in bed.”

Virginia Woolf, “The Lives of the Obscure,” The Common Reader (1925).

Pepys Interviews a Link-boy

A boy who carried a torch, called a link, to light the way for people at night.

"So homewards and took up a boy that had a lanthorn, that was picking up of rags, and got him to light me home, and had great discourse with him, how he could get sometimes three or four bushells of rags in a day, and got 3d. a bushell for them, and many other discourses, what and how many ways there are for poor children to get their livings honestly. So home and to bed at 12 o'clock at night."

Samuel Pepys, Diary (March 25, 1661).

Prowler

Someone who goes around looking for prey or plunder. A pilferer.

“At this moment I suddenly noticed that the audience was gazing in our directon with a good deal of interest, and I saw that the bearded chappie was pointing at us.

‘Yes, look at them! Drink them in!’ he was yelling, his voice rising above the perpetual-motion fellow’s and beating the missionary service all to nothing. ‘There you see two typical members of the class which has down-trodden the poor for centuries. Idlers! Non-producers! Look at the tall thin one with the face like a motor-mascot. Has he ever done an honest day’s work in his life? No! A prowler, a trifler, and a blood-sucker! And I bet he still owes his tailor for those trousers!’ He seemed to me to be verging on the personal, and I didn’t think a lot of it. Old Bittlesham, on the other hand, was pleased and amused. ‘A great gift of expression these fellows have,’ he chuckled. ‘Very trenchant.’

‘And the fat one!’ proceeded the chappie. ‘Don’t miss him. Do you know who that is? That’s Lord Bittlesham! One of the worst. What has he ever done except eat four square meals a day? His god is his belly, and he sacrifices burnt-offerings to it. If you opened that man now you would find enough lunch to support ten working-class families for a week.’ ‘You know, that’s rather well put,’ I said, but the old boy didn’t seem to see it. He had turned a brightish magenta and was bubbling like a kettle on the boil.”

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

Herald

Someone hired to make public announcements. Someone who noted the sun's passage through noon and informed the Roman citizens that afternoon had begun. One who practices the art or science of blazoning armorial bearings and settling the right of persons to bear arms or certain bearings, in connexion with which it deals with the tracing and recording of pedigrees, and deciding of questions of precedence (OED).

"Nature soon covers the work of man in wood or stone with a carpet of moss and her own heraldry of lichens."

Century Magazine (1889).

Scrutineer

Someone who looks closely as something, especially one employed to examine, count, or scrutinize votes in an election.

"The balloting began at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and ended at six, when the scrutineers reported to the Directors."

The Gentleman's Magazine (1773).

Squire

In the military organization of the later Middle Ages, a squire is a young man of good birth attendant upon a knight. One ranking next to a knight under the feudal system of military service and tenure (OED).

"One day, then, when I would have joined Herr Neidhart and his troopers in their hostel, who indeed were mostly drunken, there among others I met this aforesaid Ape, and he was very heavy with drink and had much wind in his nose, and spake strange words. 'What brings this squireling hither?' quoth he; 'is he also to be one of us?' and suchlike scornful words, wherewith he thought to provoke me to wrath. This angered me, and I answered him 'What care I for thy scornful speeches and thy drunkenness? If we meet one day in the field, then we will see who of us twain is squire, and who is trooper.'"

Goetz von Berlichingen, Autobiography (1502).

The Adventures of a Piecener

A child or young person employed in a spinning-mill to keep the frames filled with rovings, and to join together the ends of threads which break while being spun or wound (OED).

“The children whose duty it is to walk backwards and forwards before the reels, on which the cotton, silk, or worsted is wound, for the purpose of joining the threads when they break, are called piecers or pieceners.”

Frances Trollope, The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, factory boy (1839).

Mameluk

A fighting slave. A member of the military body, originally composed of Caucasian slaves, which seized the throne of Egypt in 1254, and continued to form the ruling class in that country until the early part of the 19th century (OED).

"The Egyptians lived under vassalage to their own Mamaluchi or Mercenaries."

Clement Walker, History of Independency (1648).

No Morsel for Mowers

Someone who cuts grass or other crops with a scythe or sickle.

"Lais an harlot of Corinthe of excellent beautie, but so dear & costly that she was no morsel for mowers."

Nicolas Udall, Erasmus' Apophthegmes (1542).

Lockman

A turnkey. A jailor. A public executioner. A coroner's summoner.

"Why has thou me alone in langour left?

Delivering me unto this lockman Love."

Alexander Montgomerie, Miscellaneous Poems (1600).

Cigar-end gatherer

A scavenger catering to people, not overly particular, whose taste exceeds their budget.

"Cigar-end gathering is practiced more or less in every large town. The man who picks up thrown away cigar ends does not do so to smoke but to sell them."

Pall Mall Gazette (1886).

Arsonist

Someone who sets fires for hire, skilled at making combustion appear spontaneous.

“‘We are poor people,’ the macher said, apologetically. ‘God loves the poor people but he helps the rich. The insurinks companies are rich. They take away your money and what they give you? Nothing. Don’t feel sorry for the insurinks companies.’ He proposed a fire. He would make it swiftly, safely, economically—guaranteed to collect. From his pocket he produced a strip of celluloid. ‘You know what is this?’ Morris, staring at it, preferred not to say. ‘Celluloy,’ hissed the macher. He struck a large yellow match and lit the celluloid. It flared instantly. He held it a second then let it fall to the counter, where it quickly burned itself out. With a poof he blew away nothing. Only the stench remained, floating in air.”

Bernard Malamud, The Assistant (1957).

Mailer

Someone who pays rent, the opposite of a landowner.

"A specie of cottagers, here called meallers, who build a small house for themselves, on a waste piece of ground, with the consent of the proprietor, and there, are ready to hire themselves out as day-labourers."

Statistical Account of Scotland (1792).

Janitor

A resident broom-man. The person who scatters the sawdust in elementary school hallways.

“A dog is hard to kill, his spirit clings to life. But my body is broken and battered, it’s taken its share of punishment from people. And the worst of it is that the boiling water he slopped over me ate right through the fur, and now my left side is without protection of any kind. I can very easily contract pneumonia, and once I do, my dear citizens, I’ll die of hunger. With pneumonia, you’re supposed to lie under the stairs in a front hallway. But who will run around for me, a sick bachelor dog, and look for sustenance in garbage heaps? Once my lung is affected, I’ll be crawling on my belly, feeble as a pup, and anyone can knock the daylight out of me with a stick. And then the janitors with their badges will grab me by the feet and throw me on the garbage collector’s cart. Of all the proletarians, janitors are the worst trash. Human dregs—the lowest category.”

Mikhail Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog (1925).

[Translated by Mirra Ginsburg].