hat 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 (Chapter II). From Mid. Eng.
litster, a dyer, a word of Scandinavian origin, comes Lister, as in
Lister Gate, Nottingham. With these goes the Wadman, who dealt in, or
grew, the dye-plant called woad; cf. Flaxman. A beater of flax was
called Swingler--

"Fleyl, swyngyl, verga, tribulum" (Prompt. Parv.).

A Tozer teased the cloth with a teasel. In Mid. English the verb is
taesen or tosen, so that the names Teaser and Towser, sometimes given
to bull-terriers, are doublets. Secker means sack-maker.

We have already noticed the predominance of Taylor. This is the more
remarkable when we consider that the name has as rivals the native
Seamer and Shapster and the imported Parmenter, Old Fr. parmentier, a
maker of parements, now used chiefly of facings on clothes. But
another, and more usual, origin of Parmenter, Parminter, Parmiter, is
parchmenter, a very important medieval trade. The word would
correspond to a Lat. pergamentarius, which has given also the German
surnam