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Webster 1828 Edition

Carpenter

CARPENTER

,
Noun.
An artificer who works in timber; a framer and builder of houses, and of ships. Those who build houses are called house-carpenters, and those who build ships are called ship-carpenters.
In New England, a distinction is often made between the man who frames, and the man who executes the interior wood-work of a house. The framer is the carpenter, and the finisher is called joiner. This distinction is noticed by Johnson, and seems to be a genuine English distinction. But in some other parts of America, as in New-York, the term carpenter includes both the framer and the joiner; and in truth both branches of business are often performed by the same person. The word is never applied, as in Italy and Spain, to a coach-maker.

Definition 2024

Carpenter

Carpenter

See also: carpenter

English

Proper noun

Carpenter

  1. An occupational surname​ derived from the trade name carpenter.

carpenter

carpenter

See also: Carpenter

English

Noun

carpenter ‎(plural carpenters)

  1. A person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.
  2. (nautical) A senior rating in ships responsible for all the woodwork onboard; in the days of sail, a warrant officer responsible for the hull, masts, spars and boats of a ship, and whose responsibility was to sound the well to see if the ship was making water.
  3. A two-wheeled carriage

Synonyms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

carpenter ‎(third-person singular simple present carpenters, present participle carpentering, simple past and past participle carpentered)

  1. to work as a carpenter

Middle English

Noun

carpenter (plural carpenters)

  1. carpenter

Descendants

Old French

Noun

carpenter m ‎(oblique plural carpenters, nominative singular carpenters, nominative plural carpenter)

  1. Alternative form of charpantier
    • circa 1155, Wace, Le Roman de Brut:
      Maçons fist querre et carpenters
      Si fist refaire les mousters
      He searched for masons and carpenters
      in order to rebuild the minsters.

Etymology

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman carpentier, from Old Northern French (compare Old French charpantier), from Late Latin carpentārius ‎(“a carpenter”), Latin carpentārius ‎(“a wagon-maker, carriage-maker”), from Latin carpentum ‎(“a two-wheeled carriage, coach, or chariot, a cart”), from Gaulish carbantos, from Proto-Celtic *karbantos ‎(“chariot, war chariot”), probably related to Proto-Celtic *karros ‎(“wagon”). More at car.

Pronunciation

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