carpentern.

/ˈkɑːpəntə/

Forms: Middle English carpenter, (Middle English carpunter, Middle English carpentour, carpynter, 1500s carpintor, (Scottish) charpenteir).

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman carpenter, Old Northern French carpentier (French charpentier = Provençal carpentier, Spanish carpentero, Italian carpentiero) < late Latin carpentārius originally ‘carriage-maker’, < carpentum two-wheeled chariot, wagon. Latin carpentum was apparently < Old Celtic *carpentom , whence Old Irish carpat , modern Irish & Gaelic carbad carriage, chariot, litter, bier; probably related to Old Celtic *carr-om : see car n.¹ Isidore xix. xix. 1 says ‘Lignarius generaliter ligni opifex appellatur. Carpentarius speciale nomen est. Carpentum enim solum facit.’

1. ‘An artificer in wood’ (Johnson); as distinguished from a joiner, cabinet-maker, etc., one who does the heavier and stronger work in wood, as the framework of houses, ships, etc.

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society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > workers with specific materials > woodworker > [noun] > carpenter

carpenterc1325

tree-workera1382

timberman1466

carpentaries1486

chip1784

caseworker1860

chippy1881

c1325 Coer de L. 5934 My fadyr n'as mason, ne carpentere.

a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 367 Of Dedalus þe carpunter.

a1400 Leg. Rood (1871) 30 Þat holi tre was fairest þo..þe carpenters it let[e] adoun.

1495 Act 11 Hen. VII c. 22 §1 A maister Ship Carpenter..havyng men undre hym.

c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 1597 Carpentours, cotelers, coucheours fyn.

c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) Prol. 10 Ane marchant, ane cordinar, charpenteir.

1564 W. Bullein Dial. (1886) 8 Suche Carpenter, suche chips.

1567 T. Drant tr. Horace Pistles in tr. Horace Arte of Poetrie sig. Ev The carpintor dothe grudge and thinke Thy state to be to good.

1611 Bible (King James) Mark vi. 3 Is not this the carpenter, the sonne of Mary?

1665 R. Boyle Occas. Refl. vi. x. sig. Pp2 Like the Carpenters that toyl'd to build the Ark to save Noah from the Deluge, themselves perisht in.

1835 M. R. Mitford in A. G. L'Estrange Life M. R. Mitford (1870) III. iii. 31 Captain Gore is..a capital working carpenter.

1851 J. Ruskin Stones of Venice I. App. xvii. 391 The trade which of all manual trades has been most honoured: be for once a carpenter.

2. figurative cf. ‘builder, constructor’

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1393 W. Langland Piers Plowman B. x. 410 Carpenters vnder criste holy kirke to make.

1597 2nd Pt. Returne from Pernassus iv. ii. 1722 The chiefe Carpenter of Sonets.

3. Nautical. ‘An officer appointed to examine and keep in order the hull of a wooden ship, and all her appurtenances’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.). Hence carpenter's crew, carpenter's mate, carpenter's yeoman, etc.

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society > travel > travel by water > one who travels by water or sea > sailor > sailors involved in specific duties or activities > [noun] > sailors with other specific duties on ship

sounder1575

carpenter1626

marshal1626

mastman1649

master of voyage1771

tierer1825

legger1831

call boy1835

bellboy1851

paymaster1852

snubber1853

leadsman1857

lamps1866

berther1867

bailer1883

waistboater1891

tanky1909

planesman1945

1626 J. Smith Accidence Young Sea-men 3 The Carpenter and his Mate.

1708 Royal Procl. 20 May in London Gaz. No. 4440/1 Trumpeters, Quarter-Gunners, Carpenters Crews.

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. The carpenter has a mate under him, and a crew or gang to command on necessary occasions.

1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. xvii. 292 The captain..sent for Mr. Muddle, the carpenter.

4. Short for carpenter-ant n., carpenter-bee n. at Compounds 2, etc.

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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > ant > that live in or frequent trees

carpenter1883

tree-ant1899

1883 Knowledge 13 July 20/1 [One species of tree-ants] bore into the trunk of the tree itself, by reason of which..they are designated Carpenters.

Compounds

C1. Generalattributive.

carpenter-fashion adv.

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1857 E. H. Sears Athanasia (1858) xii. 102 The idea of the universe as a building which..God put up carpenter-fashion.

carpenter-shop n.

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1882 E. A. Freeman in Longman's Mag. 1 88 ‘Barber-shop’, ‘carpenter-shop’.

carpenter-theory n.

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1862 H. Spencer First Princ. i. v. §33. 120 He declines to accept the carpenter-theory of creation as the most worthy.

b. In possessive case, frequently designating varieties of tools and instruments specially used by carpenters.

carpenter's axe n.

carpenter's chisel n.

carpenter's clamp n.

carpenter's gauge n.

carpenter's level n.

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1769 Philos. Trans. 1768 (Royal Soc.) 58 312 Secured in a tube from the wind, in the manner of carpenters levels.

carpenter's plane n.

carpenter's square n. also figurative.

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1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. ix. §13 A Joyners Rule..and a Carpenters Square.

C2.

carpenter-ant n. (see 4).

carpenter-bee n. a genus of solitary bees, Xylocopa, the females of which excavate cells in decaying wood in which to deposit their eggs.

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carpenter-bee1844

allodapine1969

1844 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 635/1 The wings of the..carpenter-bees are most frequently black, with a fine purple or violet gloss.

† carpenter's grass n. Obsolete common Yarrow, Achillea millefolium.

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the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > weed > [noun] > yarrow

yarrowc725

millefoliumOE

milfoila1300

nosebleed?a1300

nose-bledels?a1425

nese-blood?c1450

carpenter's grass1526

stanch-blood1567

stanch-grass1768

1526 Grete Herball ccxcvii. sig. Ri^v/1 In some places is called carpenters grasse, it is good to reioyne, & sewdre woundes.

carpenter's herb n. common Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris; also sometimes used of bugle and yarrow.

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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular medicinal plants or parts > [noun] > names applied to various plants or parts > self-heal

self-heallOE

brunel1527

prunella1527

carpenter's herb1578

hook-heal1578

prunel1578

sicklewort1597

prince's feather1818

hook-weed1861

1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball i. xc. 133 Brunella, in English Prunell, Carpenters herbe, Selfe heale & Hooke heale.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Herbe au charpentier,..Carpenters-hearbe, Sickle-worte, Hooke-heale, Selfe-heale.

1737 J. Ozell Urquhart's Rabelais (1807) II. 119 He should go search for some millefoil, commonly called the carpenter's herb.

1861 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. IV. 176.

carpenter's measure n. tonnage as measured by the cubic foot.

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the world > relative properties > measurement > the scientific measurement of volume > [noun] > cubic foot as measure of coal gas > tonnage measured by the cubic foot

carpenter's measure1756

1756 in J. A. Picton City of Liverpool: Select. Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 147 A bounty of ten shillings a ton..of Carpenter's measure.

† carpenter's millstone n. a hard sandstone occurring in Yorkshire. Obsolete.

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1859 R. Hunt Guide Mus. Pract. Geol. (ed. 2) 55 The carpenter's millstone, is a hard and close variety of the Yorkshire sandstones.

carpenter's oval n. a figure formed of two pairs of unequal circular arcs joined alternately where their tangents coincide, so as to form a continuous smooth closed curve, approximating an ellipse.

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1672 J. Collins Let. in S. P. Rigaud & S. J. Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men 17th Cent. (1841) (modernized text) I. 201 Possibly they might not at London know one of the best ways of making a carpenter's oval to any ratio of diameters.

carpenter's-scene n. (or carpenter-scene) Theatre (a) a scene introduced on the front of the stage to give the stage-carpenters time to arrange complicated scenery behind for the next act; (b) the painted scene which forms the background of this, and shuts off the part of the stage behind, where the stage-carpenters are at work.

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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun] > scene > type of scene or act

monologuec1550

monology1608

night scene1683

mad scene1741

drop-scene1815

recognition scene1838

carpenter's-scene1860

scène à faire1884

mob scene1890

sex scene1915

curtain1928

1860 Cornhill Mag. Dec. 750 The dialogue of a front-scene (known technically as a carpenter's scene) when your play requires a complicated view to be arranged behind it.

1864 Athenæum No. 1928. 506/2 Carpenter-scenes.

1874 Graphic 31 Jan. 111/2 A Carpenter's Scene is generally a flat in the first grooves consisting of some murky picture or other.

carpenter-work n. carpentry.

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society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > constructing or working with wood > [noun]

tree-workc1275

carpentry1377

wrightinga1500

wrightrya1500

carpenter-work?1553

carpentership1574

wright-work1630

chipping trade1792

carpentering1838

woodcraft1853

woodworking1872

axemanship1893

woodwork1913

?1553 Respublica (1952) v. vi. 53 I woulde ere long of yowe (haue) made suche carpenter weorke, That ye shoulde have saide Policie had been a clerke.

1720 in Jrnl. Derbysh. Archæol. Soc. (1905) 27 216 Carpenter work 1 6 0.

1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm I. 168 They embrace the particulars of mason-work, carpenter-work, slater-work,..smith-work.

1909 Daily Chron. 2 June 5/2 The play is at best a piece of very crude carpenter-work.

This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1888; most recently modified version published online December 2021).

carpenterv.

Etymology: < carpenter n.Previous versions of the OED give the stress as: ˈcarpenter.

intransitive. To do carpenter's work. transitive. To make by carpentry; to do carpenter's work; to put together mechanically. Also figurative.

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society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > constructing or working with wood > work with wood [verb (intransitive)]

carpentera1817

wright1886

the world > space > shape > shape or give shape to [verb (transitive)]

i-schapeOE

shapec1000

afaite?c1225

feigna1300

form1340

deformc1384

proportionc1384

throwc1390

figure?a1400

parec1400

mould1408

fashion1413

portrayc1450

effigure1486

porture1489

moul1530

shapen1535

frame1553

proportionate1555

efform1578

inform1590

formate1599

to shape out1600

infigure1611

figurate1615

immodelize1649

effinge1657

effigiate1660

configure1857

carpenter1884

society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > inelegance > make inelegant [verb (transitive)] > compose mechanically

carpenter1885

a1817 J. Austen Persuasion (1818) III. xi. 234 He drew, he varnished, he carpentered .

1861 Sat. Rev. 7 Dec. 582 The man who ploughs or carpenters sees a satisfactory fruit of his labours.

1884 [see carpentered adj. at Derivatives].

1885 A. Brereton Dram. Notes 50 Mr. Paul Meritt and Mr. Henry Pettitt..know how to carpenter a play for the stage.

1908 Daily Chron. 23 Oct. 6/1 The acting may be bad, the play cribbed and carpentered, but if people are genuinely moved the essence is there.

1909 G. Stratton-Porter Girl of Limberlost xi. 212 When I think of how you are carpentered, I'm adoring the result.

Derivatives

ˈcarpentered adj.

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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > wood > [adjective] > made or constructed of wood

treenc1000

stockya1400

treea1400

timberedc1412

timber?1530

wooden1538

woodya1540

ligneal1599

ligneous1812

carpentered1837

betimbered1847

wooden-built1860

society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > inelegance > [adjective] > composed mechanically

carpentered1837

carpented1878

1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. I. iv. iii. 182 The Salle des Menus is all new-carpentered.

1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 28 July 4/1 A playwright may take a month..and..only produce a carpentered thing at last.

ˈcarpentering n.

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