Chapter III

). Or, to take an example from comestibles, a Flanner limited his activity to the making of flat cakes called flans or flawns, from Old Fr. flaon (flan), a word of Germanic origin, ultimately related to flat

"He that is hanged in May will eat no flannes in Midsummer."

(The Abbot, ch. xxxiii.)

Some names have become strangely restricted in meaning, e.g. Mercer, now almost limited to silk, was a name for a dealer in any kind of merchandise (Lat. merx); in Old French it meant pedlar--

"Mercier, a good pedler, or meane haberdasher of small wares" (Cotgrave).

On the other hand Chandler, properly a candle-maker, is now used in the compounds corn-chandler and ship's chandler. Of all the -mongers the only common survival is Ironmonger or Iremonger, with the variant Isemonger, from Mid. Eng. isen, iron. Ironmonger is also dealer in eggs, Mid. Eng. eiren.

CLOTHIERS

The wool trade occupied a very large number of workers and has given a good many surnames. The Shearer was distinct from the Shearman or Sherman, the former operating on the sheep and the latter on the nap of the cloth. For Comber we also have the older Kempster, and probably Kimber, from the Mid. Eng. kemben, to comb, which survives in "unkempt". The Walker, Fuller, and Tucker, all did very much the same work of "waulking," or trampling, the cloth. All three words are used in Wyclif's Bible in variant renderings of Mark ix. 3. Fuller is from Fr. fouler, to trample, and Tucker is of uncertain origin. Fuller is found in the south and south-east, Tucker in the west, and Walker in the north. A Dyer was also called Dyster, and the same trade is the origin of the Latin-looking Dexter (