very common. The name Shoemaker has met
with the same fate, though the trade is represented by the Lat. Sutor,
whence Scot. Souter. Here belong also Cordner, Codner, [Footnote:
Confused, of course, with the local Codnor (Derbyshire)] Old Fr.
cordouanier (cordonnier), a cordwainer, a worker in Cordovan leather,
and Corser, Cosser, earlier corviser, corresponding to the French name
Courvoisier, also derived from Cordova. Chaucer, in describing the
equipment of Sir Thopas, mentions

"His shoon of cordewane" (B, 1922).

The scarcity of Groser, grocer, is not surprising, for the word,
aphetic for engrosser, originally meaning a wholesale dealer, one who
sold en gros, is of comparatively late occurrence. His medieval
representative was Spicer.

On the other hand, many occupative titles which are now obsolete, or
practically so, still survive strongly as surnames. Examples of these
will be found in chapters xvii.-xx.

Some occupative names are rather deceptive. Kisser, which is said
still to exist, means a maker of cuishes, thigh-armour, Fr, cuisses--

"Helm, cuish, and breastplate streamed with gore."

(Lord of the Isles, iv. 33.)

Corker is for caulker, i.e. one who stopped the chinks of ships and
casks, originally with lime (Lat. calx)--

"Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulk'd and bitumed ready"
(Pericles iii. 1).

Cleaver represents Old Fr, clavier, a mace-bearer, Lat. clava, a club,
or a door-keeper, Lat. clavis, a key. Perhaps even clavus, a nail,
must also be considered, for a Latin vocabulary of the fifteenth
century tells us--

"Claves, -vos vet -vas qui fert sit claviger."

Neither Bowler nor Scorer are connected with cricket. The former made
wooden bowls, and the latter was sometimes a scourer, or scout, Mid.
Eng. scurrour, a word of rather complicated origin, but perhaps more
frequently a peaceful scullion, from Fr. ecurer, to scour, Lat.
ex-curare--

"Escureur, a scourer, cleanser, feyer" (Cotgrave).

[Footnote: Feyer: A sweeper, now perhaps represented by Fayer.]

A Leaper did not always leap (Chapter XVII). The verb had also in
Mid. English the sense of running away, so that the name may mean
fugitive. In some cases it may represent a maker of leaps, i.e. fish
baskets, or perhaps a man who hawked fish in such a basket.

A Slayer made slays, part of a weaver's loom, and a Bloomer worked in
a bloom-smithy, from Anglo-Sax. blo-ma, a mass of hammered iron.
Weightman and