Archery
Fuller tells us that—
“England were but a fling,
Save for the crooked stick and the gray-goose-wing,”
and the importance of the bow and arrow is shown by the number of surnames connected with their manufacture. We find the Bowyer, Bower or Bowmaker, who trimmed and shaped the wand of yew, 1 the Fletcher (Chapter XV), Arrowsmith, or Flower, who prepared the arrow—
“His bowe he bente and sette therinne a flo” (H, 264)—
2
and the Tipper, Stringer, and Horner, who attended to smaller details, though the Tipper and Stringer probably tipped and strung other things, and the Horner, though he made the horn nocks of the long-bow, also made horn cups and other objects.
The extent to which specialization was carried is shown by the trade description of John Darks, longbowstringemaker, who died in 1600. The Arblaster may have either made or used the arblast or cross-bow, medieval Lat. arcubalista, bow-sling. His name has given the imitative Alabaster. We also find the shortened Ballister and Balestier, from which we have Bannister (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.
Notes
1 This is also one source of Boyer, but the very common French surname Boyer means ox-herd.
2 The true English word for arrow, Anglo-Sax. fla.