Category: suffix

atomizer

With the little time he had left, he had to make a number of stops, a number of acquisitions. At a roadside flea market, he bought an electric eggbeater, though all he wanted was the solenoid motor. A strip-mall Radio Shack sufficed for a cheap cell phone and a few inexpensive add-ons. At the Millington grocery store, he bought a large round container of butter cookies, though all he wanted was the steel can. Next was the hardware store on Main Street, where he bought glue, a canister of artist’s powdered charcoal, a roll of electrical tape, a pair of heavy-duty scissors, a compressed-air atomizer, and a locking extensible curtain rod. “A handyman, are you?” asked the blonde in denim cutoffs as she rang up his purchase. “My kinda guy.” She gave him an inviting smile. He could imagine the counterman across the street glowering.

Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive, 2002.

atomizer or atomiser n
a device for reducing a liquid to a fine spray, such as the nozzle used to feed oil into a furnace or an enclosed bottle with a fine outlet used to spray perfumes or medicines [CED]

atomizer n.
A device for converting a substance, especially a perfume or medicine, to a fine spray. [AHD4]

counterman

With the little time he had left, he had to make a number of stops, a number of acquisitions. At a roadside flea market, he bought an electric eggbeater, though all he wanted was the solenoid motor. A strip-mall Radio Shack sufficed for a cheap cell phone and a few inexpensive add-ons. At the Millington grocery store, he bought a large round container of butter cookies, though all he wanted was the steel can. Next was the hardware store on Main Street, where he bought glue, a canister of artist’s powdered charcoal, a roll of electrical tape, a pair of heavy-duty scissors, a compressed-air atomizer, and a locking extensible curtain rod. “A handyman, are you?” asked the blonde in denim cutoffs as she rang up his purchase. “My kinda guy.” She gave him an inviting smile. He could imagine the counterman across the street glowering.

Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive, 2002.

counterman n.
A man who tends a counter, as in a diner. [AHD4]

handyman

With the little time he had left, he had to make a number of stops, a number of acquisitions. At a roadside flea market, he bought an electric eggbeater, though all he wanted was the solenoid motor. A strip-mall Radio Shack sufficed for a cheap cell phone and a few inexpensive add-ons. At the Millington grocery store, he bought a large round container of butter cookies, though all he wanted was the steel can. Next was the hardware store on Main Street, where he bought glue, a canister of artist’s powdered charcoal, a roll of electrical tape, a pair of heavy-duty scissors, a compressed-air atomizer, and a locking extensible curtain rod. “A handyman, are you?” asked the blonde in denim cutoffs as she rang up his purchase. “My kinda guy.” She gave him an inviting smile. He could imagine the counterman across the street glowering.

Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive, 2002.

handyman noun
a man who is skilled at repairing and making things inside or outside the house and who does this in his own home or as a job [CALD]

handyman n.
A man who does odd jobs or various small tasks. [AHD4]

tradesman

The answer, for the merchant, trade, and professional classes, was that marriage was the key to achieving social, financial, and political adulthood. For example, a journeyman or tradesman who had completed his apprenticeship and could now support a wife endeavoured to coordinate the transition to master by marrying.

Elizabeth Abbott, A History of Marriage, 2010

tradesman n
1) BrE someone who buys and sells goods or services, especially in a shop
2) especially AmE someone who works at a job or trade that involves skill with your hands
3) BrE someone who goes to people’s houses to sell or deliver goods [LDCE]

stoneman

stoneman noun
1: a compositor who imposes set type on a stone and locks it up in a chase
2 a: a man working in stone
b: one who drives stoneheads
3: stonemason [MWUD]

For we constantly deal with practical problems, with moulders, contractors, derricks, stonemen, trucks, rubbish, plasterers, and what-not-else, all the while trying to soar into the blue.

— Augustus Saint-Gaudens

David McCullough, The greater journey : Americans in Paris, Simon & Schuster, 2011

journeyman

“I may not be a prentice anymore,” said Alvin, “but that don’t mean I’m a master. I’m just a journeyman.”

“Then hire on somewhere,” said Taleswapper. “You’ve still got things to learn.”

[…]

Go or stay, that’s up to you. But I can tell you this. Either you will go now, of your own free will, or you will go soon anyway, but not freely. You’re a journeyman smith ー you will have your journey.

[…]

“What’s your brother’s name?” asked Verily.

“Does that matter?” asked Calvin, a faint sneer in his voice. “Planning a visit to the backwoods soon?”

“Is that where you’re from? The backwoods?” asked Verily.

Calvin immediately backtracked. “Actually, no, I was exaggerating. My father was a miller.”

“How did the poor man die?” asked Verily.

“He’s not dead,” said Calvin.

“But you spoke of him in the past tense. As if he were no longer a miller.”

“He still runs a mill,” said Calvin.

“You still haven’t told me your brother’s name.”

“Same as my father’s. Alvin.”

“Alvin Miller?” asked Verily.

“Used to be. But in America we still change our names with our professions. He’s a journeyman smith now. Alvin Smith.”

“And you remain Calvin Miller because…”

“Because I haven’t chosen my life’s work yet.”

Orson Scott Card, The Tales of Alvin Maker IV : Alvin Journeyman, 1995.

journeyman n
old-fashioned
[Date: 1400-1500; Origin: journey ‘day’s work’ (13-19 centuries) + man]
1) a trained worker who works for someone else
2) an experienced worker whose work is acceptable but not excellent [LDCE]

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privateer and buccaneer

privateer n
an armed ship in the past that was not in the navy but attacked and robbed enemy ships carrying goods [LDCE]

buccaneer n
a pirate, esp one who preyed on the Spanish colonies and shipping in America and the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries [CED]

“What’s a privateer?” Steve asked, puzzled. “Some kind of buccaneer?”

“Sort of.” Rita laughed. “The line was always blurry. Basically, a government that was at war would commission pirates to fight for them against the enemy. In peace, pirates might attack any ship they wanted. The trouble is, the term turns on a legal technicality. They were basically the same people, doing the same things.”

William F. Wu, Isaac Asimov’s Robots in Time 2: Marauder, 1993

From 1660 until 1720, the so-called golden age of piracy, pirates again operated as privateers. This period saw some sailing under the famous “Jolly Roger” flag, with attacks by English pirates on both Spanish and French ships. There were also English attacks on the Dutch; the island of Saint Eustatius, a Dutch sugar island, was attacked by pirates and British soldiers on many occasions, changing hands 10 times during the 1660s and early 1670s. French pirates also started operating freely from their ports on the island of Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Sir Henry Morgan, a Welsh buccaneer, sacked the Spanish town of Portobelo in Panama, which had been well garrisoned.

Justin Corfield, “Piracy in the Atlantic World”, in Encyclopedia of World History, vol. 3, Facts On Files, p. 309