It's cool how many of these old professions are now common last names. A bit surprised that the world's oldest profession didn't make its way into the quiz, though. :)
Hooker was a name before it was an alias for a prostitute. Legend has it that Maj. General Joseph Hooker of the American Civil War was so fond of the working gals that they became known as "Hooker's girls" and then hookers. Another story maintains that the red light district of Washington DC at the time was known as "Hooker's Division." But though there is some dispute over whether or not this is really the genesis of hookers being called hookers, the last name in any case predates this usage.
it's not. The oldest occupation in the world is hunter/gatherer. The oldest profession amongst civilized humans is farmer. Agriculture gave rise to the concept of wealth since for the first time it was possible to accumulate more than you needed to survive (in this case, grain). It's possible that the first person to receive payment for work was receiving payment for sex. If that's the case then it's likely payment was made in surplus grain. Barter systems prevailed after that for a variety of different things. Currency was not invented until thousands of years later.
I've got a friend who is a busker. Maybe the closest contemporary equivalent. Those are those guys who go around to tourist areas and play an instrument or sing on the side of the street with a hat out to collect money.
I think wagoner is someone who drives wagons, isn't it? I tried wright, millwright, wheelwright, - I knew I was close but just couldn't go the last mile. Great quiz, BTW.
I didn't either. And I knew or could've guessed several of the others I didn't get. Possibly. Only a couple I hadn't heard of, but Taylor is the one that annoys me. Possibly Sawyer as well. (Both being bodyguards in 50 shades of Grey.. :P)
Not quite. Pb is the symbol for lead because it comes from the latin word plumbum, which relates to soft metals (plumbum nigrum means "black" lead, whereas plumbum candidum meant tin). Plumber and plumbing derive from this same latin root word.
A lot of these are first names which entertains me. Cooper, Tanner, Mason, Sawyer, Tailor (obviously spelt Taylor)... Some of them are even last names too.
A groom is also a farrier or an ossler; a person who builds fortifications was an engineer (a fortification builder was differentiated from a bridge builder by calling the latter a "civil" engineer); a teamster is also called a drover or driver.
i have to disagree about prostitute being brought up as the oldest profession. A prostitute accepts pay for performing sexual services. While I'm sure that a caveman offering a haunch of dead something helped his chances with a cavewoman this isn't true payment or even a profession. Prostitution as it is commonly know couldn't have exited until humanity moved past the hunter-gatherer stage and started to become more agricultural. You would need a large community of people with a fair amount of surplus before services like prostitution could become a way to fully support oneself and therefore become a profession. I'd say that hunter-gatherer is realistically the oldest profession. Wow, I put way too much thought into this :)
The concepts of wealth, property, and being able to pay for things because you had so much of one thing that you could spare a little to get something else... all did not exist prior to farming and agriculture which marked the shift from pure subsistence living to something akin to civilization. So, necessarily, farmer predates all other professions if you're going to define profession as something you're paid to do. But hunter/gatherer I guess could be labeled the first "occupation"- as this is what occupied pretty much 100% of our time before 12,000 years ago.
Great idea for a quiz. But Butler is definitely not correct -- in the Middle Ages the butler was the person in charge of 'butts of beer' -- nothing to do with managing servants (this is a much later definition). Please change it to House Steward or House Keeper or something more suitable. If you feel like expanding your quiz, you could add scullion, scribe, armorer, spinster, potter, marshal, knight, squire, herbalist, fletcher (made bows and arrows), carpenter, barber (they cut hair as well as did dentistry and some surgery)....
I'm pretty sure this use of bard is incorrect. You mean a minstrel. Bards are only like that in fantasy. Historically, bards were Celtic poets and the name also gets applied to Homer and Shakespeare. They didn't travel around singing in medieval times.
Absolutely many still exist, and I think people who work in these professions would be insulted to hear their skills referred to as being from the Middle Ages.
I find the description for "alchemist" a bit worrysome. For all the others it's what they actually do. For alchemist it is what they are trying to do. No alchemist ever succeeded in turning base metals into gold, it's just not possible.
Vin Baker, Tyshawn Taylor, Reggie Miller, Anthony Mason, Corey Brewer, Michael Cooper, Otto Porter, Jimmy Butler, Tyson Chandler, and Adam Wainwright are just some professional athletes I can name off the top of my head.
Kind of. A ship's chandler specialises in equipment for ships - including ropes and twines, as well as lots of other things such as tools and oils – so above and beyond the wax, candles and soap a traditional chandler would deal with.