Home › Class Names and Nicknames › Class Names and Nicknames: French

Class Names and Nicknames: French

The designation Tailor is an Anglicized form of the French Tailleur, derived from the verb tailler, to cut. [For Tallyman see TALLY, in the article "MONEY."] A Pawnbroker is familiarly called Uncle, in perpetuation of an ancient pun on the Latin word uncus, a hook. For, whereas in modern times the spout is employed as a means of communication between the pawnshop and the store-rooms overhead, the Roman pawnbrokers used a large hook; and accordingly, the expression "Gone to the uncus," was equivalent to our slang phrase "Up the spout." A Barber derives his class-title from the Latin barba, a beard. Rude and semi-civilized tribes were anciently called Barbarians wholly on account of their unkempt appearance. Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries the hairdressers of this country combined the practice of surgery, and were accordingly styled Barber-Surgeons.

The surviving "Barber's Pole" attests this fact.

The separation of the two professions took place in 1540.

A shepherd or an ideal farmer bears the poetical description of an Arcadian, in allusion to the Arcadians, who were a pastoral people. A friendly adviser is designated a Mentor, in memory of the wise and faithful counsellor of Telemachus so named. The word Usher signifies a doorkeeper, agreeably to the Old French huisher, a door. Bachelor comes from the Welsh bach, small, young. This name originally meant one inexperienced in anything.

The title of Bachelor of Arts denotes a degree next below that of Master of Arts.