Forms: 3 carpenter, (4 carpunter, 5 -pentour, -pynter, 6 -pintor, (Sc.) charpenteir). [a. Anglo-Fr. carpenter, ONF. carpentier (F. charpentier = Pr. carpentier, Sp. carpentero, It. carpentiero):—late L. carpentāri-us originally ‘carriage-maker,’ f. carpent-um two-wheeled chariot, wagon.
L. carpent-um was app. a OCelt. *carpentom, whence OIr. carpat, mod. Ir. & Gael. carbad carriage, chariot, litter, bier; prob. related to OCelt. *carr-om: see CAR. Isidore XIX. xix. 1 says ‘Lignarius generaliter ligni opifex appellatur. Carpentarius speciale nomen est. Carpentum enim solum facit.’]
1. ‘An artificer in wood’ (J.); 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.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 5934. My fadyr n’as mason, ne carpentere.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 367. Of Dedalus þe carpunter.
a. 1400. Leg. Rood (1871), 30. Þat holi tre was fairest þo … þe carpenters it let[e] adoun.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1597. Carpentours, cotelers, coucheours fyn.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., xxii. § 1. A maister Ship Carpenter … havyng men undre hym.
1548. Compl. Scot., 10. Ane merchant, ane cordinar, charpenteir.
1564. Bulleyn, Dialogue (1886), 8. Suche Carpenter, suche chips.
1567. Drant, Horace Ep., xiv. The carpintor dothe grudge.
1611. Bible, Mark vi. 3. Is not this the carpenter, the sonne of Mary…?
1665–9. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1675), 376. Like the Carpenters that toyl’d to build the Ark to save Noah from the Deluge, themselves perisht in.
1835. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life, III. iii. 31. Captain Gore is … a capital working carpenter.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. App. 391. The trade which of all manual trades has been most honoured; be for once a carpenter.
2. fig. cf. ‘builder, constructor.’
1393. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 410. Carpenters vnder criste holy kirke to make.
1597. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Pernass., IV. ii. 1722. The chiefe Carpenter of Sonets.
3. Naut. ‘An officer appointed to examine and keep in order the hull of a wooden ship, and all her appartenances’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.). Hence carpenter’s crew, mate, yeoman, etc.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., viii. 35. The Carpenter and his Mate.
1708. Royal Procl., 20 May, in Lond. Gaz., No. 4440/1. Trumpeters, Quarter-Gunners, Carpenters Crews.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., The carpenter has a mate under him, and a crew or gang to command on necessary occasions.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xvii. The captain … sent for Mr. Muddle, the Carpenter.
4. Short for carpenter-ant, carpenter-bee, etc.
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.
5. attrib. and Comb., as carpenter-fashion, -shop, -theory. In possessive case, frequently designating varieties of tools and instruments specially used by carpenters, as carpenter’s axe, chisel, clamp, gauge, level, plane, square, etc. Carpenter-ant (see 4); carpenter-bee, a genus of solitary bees, Xylocopa, the females of which excavate cells in decaying wood in which to deposit their eggs; † carpenter-grass, common Yarrow, Achillea Millefolium; carpenter’s herb, common Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris; erroneously, bugle and yarrow; carpenter’s measure, tonnage as measured by the cubic foot; carpenter’s or carpenter-scene (Theat.), 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 that forms the background of this, and shuts off the part of the stage behind, where the stage carpenters are at work.
1844. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 635/1. The wings of the … *carpenter-bees are most frequently black, with a fine purple or violet gloss.
1857. Sears, Athan., xii. (1858), 102. The idea of the universe as a building which … God put up *carpenter-fashion.
1526. Gt. Herball (Britten & H.). In some places is called *Carpenter-grasse, it is good to reioyne, and soudre woundes.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xc. 133. Brunella, in English Prunell, *Carpenters herbe, Selfe heale & Hooke heale.
1611. Cotgr., Herbe au charpentier … Carpenters-hearbe, Sickle-worte, Hooke-heale, Selfe-heale.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais (1807), II. 119. He should go search for some millefoil, commonly called the carpenter’s herb.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., IV. 176.
1768. Phil. Trans., LVIII. 312. Secured in a tube from the wind, in the manner of *carpenters levels.
1756. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 147. A bounty of ten shillings a ton … of *Carpenter’s measure.
1860. Cornhill Mag., Dec., 750 (Hoppe). 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.
1882. Freeman, in Longm. Mag., I. 88. ‘Barber-shop,’ *‘carpenter-shop.’
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. ix. § 13. A Joyners Rule … and a *Carpenters Square.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., I. v. § 33 (1875), 120. He declines to accept the *carpenter theory of creation as the most worthy.
