An Old Retainer

A dependent or follower of a person of rank or position. Someone attached to a house or owing it service.

"Yoshikiyo had appointed himself a sort of confidential steward. He summoned the overseers of Genji's several manors in the region and assigned them to necessary tasks. Genji watched admiringly. In very quick order he had a rather charming new house. A deep brook flowed through the garden with a pleasing murmur, new plantings were set out; and when finally he was beginning to feel a little at home he could scarcely believe that it all was real. The governor of the province, an old retainer, discreetly performed numerous services. All in all it was a brighter and livelier place than he had a right to expect, although the fact that there was no one whom he could really talk to kept him from forgetting that it was a house of exile, strange and alien. How was he to get through the months and years ahead?"

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

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.

Healer

A doctor.

"That evening the Third Princess was taken with severe pains. Guessing that they were birth pangs, her women sent for Genji in great excitement. He came immediately. How vast and unconditional his joy would be, he thought, were it not for his doubts about the child. But no one must be allowed to suspect their existence. He summoned ascetics and put them to continuous spells and incantations, and he summoned all the monks who had made names for themselves as healers. The Rokujo mansion echoed with mystic rites. The princess was in great pain through the night and at sunrise was delivered of a child. It was a boy. Most unfortunate, thought Genji. It would not be easy to guard the secret if the resemblance to the father was strong."

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

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.

Drayman

A porter who uses a low cart, sometimes without wheels, to transport goods, especially wood or kegs of beer.

"Presently a film of dark smoke appears above one of those remote 'points'; instantly a negro drayman, famous for his quick eye and prodigious voice, lifts up the cry, 'S-t-e-a-m-boat a-comin'!' and the scene changes! The town drunkard stirs, the clerks wake up, a furious clatter of drays follows, every house and store pours out a human contribution, and all in a twinkling the dead town is alive and moving. Drays, carts, men, boys, all go hurrying from many quarters to a common center, the wharf. Assembled there, the people fasten their eyes upon the coming boat as upon a wonder they are seeing for the first time. And the boat is rather a handsome sight, too."

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883).

High Lawyer

A robber who rides on horseback.

“Such as robbe on horse-backe were called high lawyers, and those who robbed on foote, he called Padders.”

Samuel Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, beadle of Bridewell (1610).

Buckle-Maker

The person who fashions the buckles for fastening the leather straps of shoes, belts, and other things.

"The incessant repetition of the same hand-work dwarfs the man, robs him of his strength, wit, and versatility, to make a pin-polisher, a buckle-maker, or any other specialty."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits (1856).

Moirologist

A hired mourner.

"There may be found traces, too, of Lethe in the death ballads sung by the hired mourners. The moirologists will sing of the loneliness of the living, of the horrors of death."

Quarterly Review (1886).

Client

In ancient Rome, a plebeian under the patronage of a wealthy patrician. The patron was bound, in return for certain services, to protect his client's life and interests. Some aristocrats had scores of clients who gathered outside their domicile every morning for bread and further sustenance. This was one solution to entrenched poverty and unemployment in an era of gross disparity between the haves and the never-will-have.

"The King was miserably compelled kneeling on his knees to give over both his crown and scepter to the Pope of Rome and as his client, vassal, feodory, and tenant, to receive it of him again."

Richard Grafton, Chronicle of John II (1568).