carpenter

See also: Carpenter

English

Etymology

From Middle English carpenter, from Anglo-Norman carpenter (compare Old French charpentier), from Late Latin carpentārius (“a carpenter”), from 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.

Displaced native Old English trēowwyrhta (literally “tree worker”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑː.pən.tə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑɹpəntɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)pəntə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: car‧pen‧ter

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.
4. (zoology) A carpenter bee.
   • 1968, Elliot C. G. Pinhey, Introduction to insect study in Africa, page 146:

     The large, stout African bees are carpenters (Xylocopa), making small tunnels in timber, housing few individuals.

5. (Canada, UK, regional) A woodlouse.
   • 2015, A.D. Barber, “Vernacular names of woodlice with particular reference to Devonshire”, in Bulletin of the British Myriapod & Isopod Group, page 58:

     Eleven names in Laver’s table (just over 6%) are of the “carpenter” type, a name for woodlice also recorded in Shropshire and Warwickshire. […] Apparently a Newfoundland word for woodlouse is “carpenter” or “cafner” (another is also “boat-builder”). These names clearly relate to the animals’ affinity to wood as will “carpenter’s flea”, “wood-pig”, “wood-bug”, “grampus wood-bug” and, of course “woodlouse”.

Synonyms

• (person skilled at carpentry): joiner, chippy, timberwright, treewright, woodworker, woodwright

Derived terms

• carpent
• carpenter ant
• carpenter bee
• carpentering
• carpenter miller
• carpenter moth
• carpenter pencil
• carpenter's pencil
• carpenter's square

 

Related terms

• carpentry (noun)
• The Carpenter (jocular: Jesus Christ)
• carpent, carpenting (nonstandard)

Translations

one who practices carpentry

• Albanian: zdrukthëtar (sq) m, drudhendës m
• Apache:

  Western Apache: kįh ágoleʼí

• Arabic: نَجَّار (ar) m (najjār)

  Egyptian Arabic: نجار m (naggār)

  Moroccan Arabic: نجار (najjār)

• Aramaic:

  Hebrew: נגרא m (nagārā, nagoro)

  Syriac: ܢܓܪܐ m (nagārā, nagoro)

• Armenian: հյուսն (hy) (hyusn), ատաղձագործ (hy) (ataġjagorc), դուրգար (hy) (durgar)

  Old Armenian: հիւսն (hiwsn)

• Assamese: বাঢ়ৈ (barhoi), কাঠ মিস্ত্ৰী (kath mistri), সূতাৰ (xutar)
• Asturian: carpinteru m, carpintera f
• Azerbaijani: dülgər (az), xarrat (az)
• Basque: arotz
• Belarusian: цясля́р m (cjasljár), сталя́р m (staljár)
• Bengali: সূত্রধর (bn) (śutrodhor)
• Bulgarian: дърводе́лец (bg) m (dǎrvodélec)
• Burmese: လက်သမား (my) (laksa.ma:)
• Catalan: fuster (ca) m, fustera (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᎠᏲᎳᏅᎥᏍᎩ (ayolanvvsgi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 木匠 (zh) (mùjiàng)

• Czech: tesař (cs) m, truhlář (cs) m
• Danish: tømrer (da) c, tømmermand c
• Dutch: timmerman (nl) m, timmervrouw (nl) f, timmeraar (nl) m
• Erzya: чапиця (čapića)
• Esperanto: ĉarpentisto, ĉarpentistino (explicitly female)
• Estonian: puusepp (et)
• Faroese: timburmaður m
• Finnish: puuseppä (fi), timperi (fi), kirvesmies (fi)
• French: menuisier (fr) m, menuisière (fr) f, charpentier (fr) m, charpentière (fr) f
• Galician: carpinteiro (gl) m, carpinteira f, fragueiro m (cart maker)
• Georgian: ხურო (xuro)
• German: Zimmermann (de) m, Zimmerfrau (de) f (⚠ - chambermaid, not female carpenter), Zimmerer (de) m, Zimmerin (de) f, Schreiner (de) m, Schreinerin (de) f, Tischler (de) m, Tischlerin (de) f, Bauschreiner m (Swiss German), Bauschreinerin f, Bautischler m, Bautischlerin f
• Gothic: 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐌰 m (timrja)
• Greek: ξυλουργός (el) m (xylourgós), μαραγκός (el) m (maragkós)

  Ancient: τέκτων m (téktōn)

• Hebrew: נַגָּר (he) m (nagár)
• Hindi: काष्ठकार m (kāṣṭhakār), बढ़ई (hi) m (baṛhaī)
• Hungarian: ács (hu), épületasztalos (hu), (esp. a joiner) asztalos (hu)
• Icelandic: smiður (is) m, húsasmiður m, snikkari m, timburmaður m
• Irish: cearpantóir m, saor adhmaid m, siúinéir (ga) m
• Italian: carpentiere (it) m, falegname (it) m
• Japanese: 大工 (ja) (だいく, daiku)
• Kazakh: ағаш ұстасы (kk) (ağaş ūstasy)
• Khmer: ជាងឈើ (ciəng chəə)
• Korean: 목수(木手) (ko) (moksu)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: دارتاش (dartaş)

  Northern Kurdish: necarr (ku), merenqoz (ku), xirat (ku), dulger (ku), dartiraş (ku), dartaş (ku)

• Kyrgyz: жыгач устасы (jıgac ustası)
• Lao: ຊ່າງໄມ້ (sāng mai)
• Latin: lignārius m
• Latvian: galdnieks m
• Lithuanian: dailidė m
• Low German: Timmermann (nds) m
• Luganda: mubazzi
• Macedonian: столар m (stolar)
• Malay: tukang kayu (ms)
• Malayalam: ആശാരി (ml) (āśāri)
• Maltese: mastrudaxxa m
• Marathi: सुतार (sutār)
• Mazanderani: چوتاش (čutâš)
• Middle English: carpenter
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: мужаан (mn) (mužaan)

• Navajo: kin ííłʼíní
• Norman: tchèrpentchi m
• Northern Sotho: mmêtli
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tømrer m, tømmermann m, snekker (no) m

  Nynorsk: tømrar m, tømmermann m, snikkar m

• Occitan: menusièr m, menuisièra f, menusèr m, menusèra f
• Old English: trēowwyrhta m
• Ottoman Turkish: مارانغوز (marangoz), دولگر (dülger), طوغرامه‌جی (doğramacı)
• Pali: vaḍḍhakī
• Pashto: ترکاڼ (ps) m (tarkāṇ)
• Persian: درودگر (fa) (dorudgar), درگر (dorgar), نجار (fa) (najjâr)
• Plautdietsch: Holtoabeida m, Descha m, Temmamaun (nds) m
• Polish: cieśla (pl) m, stolarz (pl) m, stolarka (pl) f
• Portuguese: marceneiro (pt) m, marceneira f, carpinteiro (pt) m, carpinteira (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਤਰਖਾਣ (pa) (tarkhāṇ)
• Romani: duramažís, duramaǰís
• Romanian: dulgher (ro) m, tâmplar (ro) m, lemnar (ro) m
• Romansch: lainari m, scrinari m, marangun m
• Russian: пло́тник (ru) m (plótnik), столя́р (ru) m (stoljár)
• Sanskrit: तक्षन् (sa) m (takṣan), छेदि (sa) m (chedi), त्वष्टृ (sa) m (tvaṣṭṛ)
• Scottish Gaelic: saor m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: те̏са̄р m, сто̏ла̄р m

  Roman: tȅsār (sh) m, stȍlār (sh) m

• Shona: muvezi
• Slovak: tesár m, truhlár m
• Slovene: tesar (sl) m
• Somali: najaar
• Spanish: carpintero (es) m, carpintera f, ebanista (es) m or f
• Sranan Tongo: temreman
• Swahili: seremala (sw)
• Swazi: um-bati, wemápulángo
• Swedish: timmerman (sv) c, snickare (sv) c
• Tagalog: anluwagi, karpintero
• Tajik: дуредгар (duredgar)
• Tamil: தச்சன் (ta) (taccaṉ)
• Telugu: వడ్రంగి (te) (vaḍraṅgi)
• Thai: ช่างไม้ (châang-máai)
• Tocharian B: tarkāttsa
• Turkish: dülger (tr), marangoz (tr), doğramacı (tr) sg
• Turkmen: agaç ussasy
• Ukrainian: тесля́р m (tesljár), те́сля m (téslja), стола́р m (stolár)
• Urdu: بڑھئی m (baṛhaī)
• Uyghur: ياغاچچى (ug) (yaghachchi)
• Uzbek: duradgor (uz)
• Venetian: marangon (vec) m, marangona f, carpenter (vec) m, carpentera f
• Vietnamese: thợ mộc (vi)
• Volapük: kapenan (vo) m or f, hikapenan m, jikapenan f
• Welsh: saer coed m, saer (cy) m
• Yiddish: סטאָליער m (stolyer)

nautical: person responsible for all the woodwork onboard

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 船匠 (zh) (chuánjiàng)

• Finnish: timperi (fi)
• Hungarian: hajóács (hu)
• Italian: maestro d'ascia m
• Ottoman Turkish: مارانغوز (marangoz)
• Romanian: marangoz (ro) m

Verb

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

1. (transitive, intransitive) To work as a carpenter, cutting and joining timber.

   Synonym: (rare) carpent

Further reading

• “carpenter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “carpenter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “carpenter”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• cappenter, carpentar, carpenteer, carpentour, carpintier, carpunter

Etymology

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman carpenter (compare Old French charpentier), from Late Latin carpentārius.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /karpɛnˈteːr/, /ˈkarpɛntər/

Noun

carpenter (plural carpenteres)

1. carpenter

Related terms

• carpentrie

Descendants

• English: carpenter
• Scots: carpenter

References

• “carpentē̆r, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old French

Noun

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

1. Alternative form of charpantier
   • c. 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.