(Think=typed? In previous comment) again tried everything but a correct word. Apotheker, apothecer, apothecre, apothecar, apothecry, and some more variations plus chemist and doctor.
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. :)
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 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)
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.
Cool I didnt know that, I see it now (in most if not all germanic languages besides english a variation of - mid is still used for "with": mit, met, med, með )
Most professions were male in medieval times, and you don't feel the need to append "(male)" to them all. The word "midwife" has absolutely no meaning of being male or female, as a matter of fact, so it is incorrect to state "(female)" above. In fact it is a bit offensive that a predominantly female profession should be marked as an oddity, while a predominantly male profession raises no eyebrows.
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.
I disagree. Whilst it's obviously true that alchemists never discovered how to turn base metals into gold (along with creating a panacea or achieving immortality), they did make pretty significant strides in other fields, namely chemistry, philosophy and medicine. They were well funded by the elite and even the state in some cases, and were certainly considered to be legitimate professionals at the time. In fact, the view that these people were fraudsters probably only arose around the 18th Century with the rise of modern science.
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.
? Not sure where it appears in the quiz, but the meaning is "the" and the pronunciation is "the", exactly as we say "the" in current English. The thorn or Y shape was the symbol for the sound we make for 'th' in the.
When I initially read the clue on "Milks cows (female)" I thought, "Cf course female cows! Good lord, what a truly awful job it would be to 'milk' male cows!"
My Mum's heating system struck a leak and it was discovered, during its replacement, that the pipes supplying her home were still lead! Eeek so the street was also dug up to replace those. This was in 2019. Plumbers are still finding lead to work with.
Maybe add a note to the description that the professions *began* in the middle-ages. I was expected to guess older, now-gone professions, but a bunch of these still exist.
Given that a baker will only earn money if he makes and sells bread, and a cooper will only make money if he makes and sells barrels, should alchemist (as it is described here) be considered an actual profession?
While some might have been sponsored, I actually see it more as a hobby than an occuption. I can't really picture them "clocking in " in the morning and getting in trouble if they weren't on time. ;)
The problem is in the title, 'You Old Professions' doesn't make sense. The 'Y' in the 'ye' should be the Runic Thorne if you want to make the /th/ sound. Just saying....
The title is fine. The symbol for the letter "thorn", which looked much like a "p" with an extended top, was rendered as "y" by early printers. This pretty much sealed thorn's fate of eventually becoming an archaic letter.
A midwife doesn't have to be female. The 'wife' part refers to the woman giving birth, not the person assisting. In olde worldy terms it just means "with woman".
no modiste? for female dressmakers? ....ohm wait. are you saying they make dresses for females? or are they females that make dresses? or... am I just wrong? ... no it is you. can you accept it pls?
In 1800s London, a lot of shoes were custom made by cordswainers. My family were cordswainers, also known as shoemakers. Being called a cobbler was an insult, as they merely fix shoes.
I also agree that Minstrel should be accepted.
works with beer : brew master?
And also I am thinking on the drug one: chemist or dispenser should work.
The knights sure didnt fight with wooden swords :D
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ostler
1:51
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drives a team of animals = herdsman