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Dictionary of Ancient Occupations and Trades,
Ranks, Offices, and Titles

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new = Recent changes
as of 2015-03-22
haberdasher
a dealer in men's clothing.
Brit a dealer in dress accessories and sewing goods.
hack
one who undertakes unpleasant or distasteful tasks for money or reward; a hireling.
a writer hired to produce routine or commercial writing.
hacker
a maker of hoes
hackie (=cabbie)
hagiographer
a writer of the lives of saints
halberdier
mil. a soldier armed with a halberd (=a combined spear and battleax)
half-timer
a child - usually under 13 - who worked half a day in a factory or mill, and half a day at school
hand
one who performs manual labor
one who is part of a group or crew
(by synecdoche)
harbormaster
naut one in charge of a harbor, authorizing arrivals and departures, and arranging for pilots to guide vessels in or out.
harlot
a prostitute. (=Harlot is first recorded in English in a 13° century work as meaning a man of no fixed occupation, vagabond, begger. [AHD])
hatcheler
one who combed out or carded flax
hatter
one whose occupation is the manufacture, sale or repair of hats; a hat maker;
See the table.
Hat-making Jobs
blocker, block maker, box maker, brim ironer, carrotting machine operator, coner, dyer, colorer, finisher, flanger, former, fur cutter, fur blower, fur mixer, hardener, inspector - packer, milliner, pouncer, trimmer.
Ref: Hat Maker Job Descriptions on the Hatters at Orange, NJ website.
hausfrau
G a housewife
hawker
one who sells goods in an aggressive manner, esp. by calling out.
haymonger
a dealer in hay
hayward
a keeper of fences
hist. civ. a civil office in early New England, charged with periodic inspections of the fences of the town and, often, their repair.
head
a person who leads, rules or is in charge; a leader, chief or director.
~hunter 
one who practices the custom of cutting off and preserving the heads of enemies.
slang a recruiter of personnel, esp. executives, e.g. for a corporation.
~liner 
a performer who receives top billing; a star.
cf top banana
~man 
the leader of a small primitive tribe.
a headsman; an executioner.
~master  (female~mistress)
a principal of a school, esp. of a private school.
~shrinker 
a headhunter who dries and shrinks the heads of victims.
slang a psychiatrist.
~waiter 
a waiter in a restaurant having charge of the other waiters, and perhaps also responsible for taking reservations and seating diners as they arrive.
headsman
hist An executioner who beheads.
A person in charge of a whaling boat.
helmsman
a person who steers a vessel Also: steersman, wheelsman, navigator (=from the helm, which is the tiller or wheel by which a ship is steered)
herald
an official messenger, bringing news
Brit. Hist. an officer responsible for official ceremonies and etiquette
Brit. an official of the Heralds College, responsible for assigning and studying arms (heraldry).
-herd
a herdsman, as a goat herd, cowherd
an owner or keeper of these animals.
hermit
a person who lives in solitude;
an early Christian recluse;
cf anchorite
higgler
an itinerant peddler
highwayman
a robber who attacks people on the public way - usually on horseback; cf footpad
hillier
a roof tiler
hind
a farm laborer
hod carrier
one who carries a hod (=a V-shaped open trough on a pole used for carrying bricks, mortar, etc.)
hoddie see hod carrier
hodman see also hod carrier
a literary hack
one who works mechanically
hogreeve
an officer in charge of stray hogs and other livestock; a pounder
hooker
a reaper
a mediæval term for a thief who steals with the aid of a hook on a pole
one who crochets (=From the implement used: a crochet hook)
Slang a prostitute (=Not from the Civil War general, as the usage was well known before that war. It appeared in the second edition (although not the first) of John Russell Bartlett's Dicionary of Americanisms, published in 1859. Bartlett defined hooker as a strumpet, a sailor's trull>.)
hooper
one who made hoops for casks and barrels
Horse, Master of the
dom. a royal household post of importance, responsible for the care, breeding and deployment of the royal livery, including: Transport of the monarch and the court on all occasions; Supervision of the royal studs, and the purchase, training and equipping of the horses for all purposes; provision of mounts for household officials and royal messengers; Organizing and planning the royal journeys, annual and otherwise; Providing different sorts of horses for the various household members and uses: war-horses, great horse for the joust, coursers, palfreys, amblers, cobs, rouncies, mules and pack-horses, hacks and hunters; Management of the large staff of aveners, grooms, clerks, farriers, purveyors and baggage-men. In 1554 the annual payroll was £1,132/10/2½ -- a huge sum at the time. On all royal journeys, the Master of the Horse rode immediately behind the sovereign. On the first day of her reign, Elizabeth I appointed Robert Dudley (Leicester) Master of the Horse.
hosier
a maker of stockings
hosteler
one who receives, lodges or entertains guests and strangers,
obs exc hist in a monastery or religious house, one whose office was to attend to guests and strangers
arch a keeper of an inn or hostelry; an innkeeper
a stableman. see hostler
obs a student who lives at a hostel (femalehosteleress); a traveller who stays at hostels.
hosteler-wife 
the mistress of an inn
hostler
a groom who took care of horses, often at an inn; a stableman; a (=hosteler)
Also: ostler
one who services vehicles or machines when not in service, esp train engines.
the keeper of a round-house in a rail yard [OED]
house steward
dom the chief male domestic servant in a household, acting as a manager thereof, hiring and firing servants and keeping the accounts. He dealt mainly with the master of the house. cf housekeeper, butler, Lord High Steward.
housekeeper
dom the chief female domestic servant, answerable to the lady of the household and dealing with the linens and cleaning, and the associated staff. She was the female counterpart to the house steward. [DOT]
huckster
one who sells small wares.
a slang term for a street peddler who travelled from town to town.
nowadays one who uses aggressive, showy, and sometimes devious methods to promote or sell a product.
hugger
a porter or carrier, esp a quarry-worker who carried stones to the surface
huisshers
cf ushers
hurdy-gurdy man
an itinerant pan-handler (=begger) who played a hurdy-gurdy (=an ancient stringed instrument played by turning a crank that ran a rosin-coated wheel over the strings with a droning effect). His assistant would dance and bang her tambourine and collect money from the people in the street. Sometimes they would have a "monkey on a string" as an assistant.
husband
chiefly Brit a manager or steward of a household. [AHD]
arch a prudent, thrifty manager. [AHD]
see the table at kith.
husbandman
a farmer who cultivated the land

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