Someone who makes a fellow thief's job easy by putting out a neighbors' goods or cattle in a place where the thieving partner can make off with them.
"He is a more cunning thief which can steal without an outputter or receiver, than he which always is enforced to use the help of one or other."
Thomas Jackson, Commentaries upon the Apostle's Creed (1640).
A learned Hindu. Someone versed in Sanskrit and in the philosophy, jurisprudence, and religion of India.
"The Pundits or Brahmin lawyers, still speak the original language in which these ordinances were composed."
John Justamond, tr. Raynal's Philosophical History of the settlements of the Europeans in the East and West Indies (1776).
Someone who knows the difference between mushrooms and toadstools.
"I'll teach those mushroomers to keep out of my meadow."
Cadman, H. Druidale (1898).
A soothsayer (or charlatan) who predicts the future based on what can be discerned from the steaming entrails and liver of a sacrificed animal.
"While Vespasian was there offering sacrifice and pondering his secret hopes, Basilides the priest, after repeated inspections of the entrails, said to him, ‘Whatever be your purpose, Vespasian, whether you think of building a house, of enlarging your estate, or augmenting the number of your slaves, there is given you a vast habitation, boundless territory, a multitude of men.’"
Tacitus, Histories (100 AD).
Someone who cards wool, removing the snarls from the fiber.
"Finally, there was the textile industry. As in the Greek world, and for similar reasons, it was at Rome sharply differentiated from purely household production. As an industry it employed a wide range of workers, from carders (carminatores) and weavers (textores) to dyers and fullers. These latter worked in relatively large establishments situated near aqueducts. Here again, apart from specialisation within the trade, there was a geographical specialisation. Thus, Tarentum, Puteoli and Ancona specialised in dyeing and in making purple dye. Syracuse, Cumae and Canusium were famous for their fine woollen cloths, while Parma and Modena produced ordinary woollen cloths in what could really be called factories. Linen was the speciality in Padua and in Etruria, and Rome was known for its embroidery. Slave labour, mostly that of women, was often used. In some branches of the industry, however, in the production of the garments themselves, for example, free workers to a large extent took the place of slaves."
Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work (1969)
[Translated by Janet Lloyd].
An attendant or servant. A watchman at the gates of a city. A customs worker. A spy. Someone who attends to customers in an inn or a restaurant.
“And in all the beer gardens the waiters had opportunity to indulge that delight in each other’s society and conversation which forms so important a part in a waiter’s idea of happiness. Sometimes the people in a sparsely occupied place will fare more strange than those in a crowded one. At one time I waited twenty minutes for a bottle of the worst beer in Christendom while my waiter told a charmingly naive story to a group of his compatriots. I protested sotto voce at the time that such beer might at least have the merit of being brought quickly.”
Stephen Crane, Other Writings About New York, “Coney Island’s Failing Days” (1894-6).
A go-between. A pander, procurer or procuress.
