Glossary of Vict. Occupations for Researchers

[curious]

Dave, a Pricker

Pricker: A pattern maker, or a horseman, or a witch hunter. ()

I've been a horse person my whole life, and I don't recall having ever heard that term... My guess is it's an archaic term having to do with the wearing of spurs.

But "witch hunter"???... Didn't they prick suspected witches with pins or something?

If you jump and say "ouch!"- yep, you're a witch!

(Typical male-designed "scientific test" )

Archaic

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" . . . ironically said by one of the witches.

now I understand this line from Macbeth.

Thanks

So maybe it's a tingling or prickly feeling a person gets around a witch.

[Robert]

I remember on one of those Jack Hargreaves 'Out Of Town' programmes, they showed the old English custom of Swinging The Marrow. A tall pole with a rope attached was erected, and a marrow was tied to the rope. The villagers stood round the pole in a circle. The marrow was then swung. The first man to be struck on the head by the marrow, fell down. The marrow was swung again until there was only one man standing, who I suppose was the winner. I don't know whether he got to take home the marrow.

[Archaic]

Macbeth & "Pricking"

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" . . . ironically said by one of the witches.
now I understand this line from Macbeth.
Thanks
So maybe it's a tingling or prickly feeling a person gets around a witch.

Hi Curious. Kudos for the Shakespeare tie-in!!

Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play, so I should have recalled this line. Like all lines from Shakespeare it has multiple levels of meaning.

People often blamed unaccountable physical sensations, aches & pains on "witches" or other "evil ones" who were believed to inflict suffering upon the virtuous from a distance. Thus random pains and odd physical sensations were also seen as Omens or Portents of the approach of Evil.

What's ironic is that MacBeth starts out the play as a truly heroic, noble, loyal man... but he is seduced by the Witches' bizarrely enigmatic prophecy that he "shall be King hereafter". The Witches don't explain how that is supposed to come about.

Goaded by his ambitious wife, Macbeth's tragic mistake is to try to "actively assist" Fate in forcing the prophecy come true. So not only does he repeatedly consult Witches - in itself a sin and an "evil act"- but he actually murders his own guests and friends and their children in his obsessive drive to make the prophecy come true. Themes of Evil, Chaos, and the "Inversion of the Natural Order" permeate the play.

The Witches are supposed to be creatures of Evil who consort with the Devil and respond to the Devil's call, which was believed to involve some sort of demonic physical contact. Witches were also "tested" by "pricking" them with sharp needles (particularly in "suspicious" birth marks such as moles) to see if they reacted and if they bled.

So Shakespeare incorporates a myriad of connotations in the line, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" - especially because the living embodiments of Evil, the 3 Witches, sense an even greater Evil approaching in the form of the supposedly heroic but secretly egotistical, ambitious, and murderous Macbeth.

God, I love Shakespeare! Thanks again, Curious.
Archaic

[Archaic]

"Prig Napper"

And the prig napper and nob thatcher?
Dave

Oh yeah, sorry Dave. A "Prig Napper" is a horse thief. (My guess is that most folks wouldn't willingly list this on the census as their occupation! )

It sounds to me like old English slang, so I looked up the origin of "prig" as "thief" and found that it goes back to c.1500

Now I'm wondering if "Prig Napper" has any relation to the later slang term "Prig", meaning an overly strait-laced, irritating and fussy person?

Anybody happen to know?

Archaic

[Archaic]

"Nob-Thatcher"

A Nob-thatcher is a maker of wigs. It dates back to the days of 'perukes' and 'periwigs', which were worn by gentlemen, the nobility, etc.

It sounds like a slang term to me, and a pretty good sarcastic one at that.

Maybe the term should be revived for those who make a living today performing hair transplants?

Best regards,
Archaic

[Bridewell]

And a "nob thatcher" is indeed a wig maker.

A "ripper" is a person who brings fish inland to sell. There would have been a few of them coming up Commercial Street from the docks (and all of them carrying knives, of course). Perhaps Jack the Ripper was a Ripper called Jack.

Regards, Bridewell.

[Cogidubnus]

Cheers Archaic...I suppose I could've googled them, but having undertaken not to, I felt obliged to stick by that...still convinced there were rippers in the copper mines though!

Dave

[Archaic]

Hi Dave. I wouldn't be surprised if you're right; that word sure got around!

Go ahead and look through the online 'Occupations' glossary linked in Post #1. It's your turn to stump the rest of us.

Cheers,
Archaic

[curious]

Hi Curious. Kudos for the Shakespeare tie-in!!

Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play, so I should have recalled this line. Like all lines from Shakespeare it has multiple levels of meaning.

People often blamed unaccountable physical sensations, aches & pains on "witches" or other "evil ones" who were believed to inflict suffering upon the virtuous from a distance. Thus random pains and odd physical sensations were also seen as Omens or Portents of the approach of Evil.

What's ironic is that MacBeth starts out the play as a truly heroic, noble, loyal man... but he is seduced by the Witches' bizarrely enigmatic prophecy that he "shall be King hereafter". The Witches don't explain how that is supposed to come about.

Goaded by his ambitious wife, Macbeth's tragic mistake is to try to "actively assist" Fate in forcing the prophecy come true. So not only does he repeatedly consult Witches - in itself a sin and an "evil act"- but he actually murders his own guests and friends and their children in his obsessive drive to make the prophecy come true. Themes of Evil, Chaos, and the "Inversion of the Natural Order" permeate the play.

The Witches are supposed to be creatures of Evil who consort with the Devil and respond to the Devil's call, which was believed to involve some sort of demonic physical contact. Witches were also "tested" by "pricking" them with sharp needles (particularly in "suspicious" birth marks such as moles) to see if they reacted and if they bled.

So Shakespeare incorporates a myriad of connotations in the line, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" - especially because the living embodiments of Evil, the 3 Witches, sense an even greater Evil approaching in the form of the supposedly heroic but secretly egotistical, ambitious, and murderous Macbeth.

God, I love Shakespeare! Thanks again, Curious.
Archaic

So, is that why a pricker is a witch hunter? or is it something else.

[Archaic]

"Pricking" Test for Witches

Hi Curious.

The specific term "pricker" refers to a "witch-hunter" who "tests" alleged witches by pricking them with special pins. The needles were often inserted in birthmarks or moles because were regarded with suspicion as being "the Devil's mark". (Woe betide anyone with a strawberry mark, or God forbid, a mole with dark hairs growing out of it!)

Robert supplied a good Wikipedia link on the subject a couple of pages back, but here it is again:

"Pricking'': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pricking

Note that 'false' pricking-needles have been discovered which held a retractable needle. These 'tools' were designed to deceive witnesses into believing that a witch's flesh had been pierced, but she did not bleed- a sure sign of a witch!

Another sure sign of a witch is the demonic tangle I discovered in my horse's mane the other morning... it looked like it was deliberately crocheted into dozens of separate knots that were all insanely twisted in opposite directions- maddening!

But don't worry, I'm not jumping to conclusions. I intend to calmly and scientifically determine if the impossible snarls were caused by a cranky old neighbor's wicked spell-casting, or by a horde of evil fairies wielding miniature tornadoes.

- Can anyone lend me the right tools?

Thanks,
Archaic

[bolo]

Hi Archaic,

But don't worry, I'm not jumping to conclusions. I intend to calmly and scientifically determine if the impossible snarls were caused by a cranky old neighbor's wicked spell-casting, or by a horde of evil fairies wielding miniature tornadoes.

- Can anyone lend me the right tools?

I would recommend black bat flowers dipped in a saturated salt-water solution. Just hit your neighbour with one, if his or her face turns lime green, he or she is a demonic witch, a used car dealer or a banker, all of which calls for immediate extermination.

Regards,

Boris

[curious]

Hi Curious.

The specific term "pricker" refers to a "witch-hunter" who "tests" alleged witches by pricking them with special pins. The needles were often inserted in birthmarks or moles because were regarded with suspicion as being "the Devil's mark". (Woe betide anyone with a strawberry mark, or God forbid, a mole with dark hairs growing out of it!)

Robert supplied a good Wikipedia link on the subject a couple of pages back, but here it is again:

"Pricking'': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pricking

Note that 'false' pricking-needles have been discovered which held a retractable needle. These 'tools' were designed to deceive witnesses into believing that a witch's flesh had been pierced, but she did not bleed- a sure sign of a witch!

Another sure sign of a witch is the demonic tangle I discovered in my horse's mane the other morning... it looked like it was deliberately crocheted into dozens of separate knots that were all insanely twisted in opposite directions- maddening!

But don't worry, I'm not jumping to conclusions. I intend to calmly and scientifically determine if the impossible snarls were caused by a cranky old neighbor's wicked spell-casting, or by a horde of evil fairies wielding miniature tornadoes.

- Can anyone lend me the right tools?

Thanks,
Archaic

Thanks, I missed that. And good luck with your neighbor -- be careful, be safe

[Cogidubnus]

Passing the baton

OK since I've been asked, how about these three?

Quister
Qwylwryghte
Yatman

Good luck (and as ever, no peaking!)

Dave

[Archaic]

OK since I've been asked, how about these three?

Quister
Qwylwryghte
Yatman

Good luck (and as ever, no peaking!)

Dave

Oh, brother! You turned the tables on me.

I'll try Qwylwryghte. Looks like an old English word. I'm guessing that it means either "a Maker of Quill Pens" or somebody that is hired to write for those who can't.

I'm still mulling over the other ones. Does "Yatman" have anything to do with boats, like an early rendition of Yachtman?

Thanks,
Archaic