# 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”). Doublet of carpintero. More at car.
Displaced native Old English trēowwyrhta (literally “tree worker”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɑː.pən.tə/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈkɑɹpəntɚ/, /ˈkɑɹpəndɚ/
* Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)pəntə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: car‧pen‧ter

### Noun

carpenter (plural carpenters)
* A person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.
* (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.
* A two-wheeled carriage.
* (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.
* (Canada, British, 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
* carpenterly
* carpenter miller
* carpenter moth
* carpenter pencil
* carpentership
* carpenter's pencil
* carpenter's square
* carpentress
* formwork carpenter
* shuttering carpenter

#### Related terms

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

#### Translations
### Verb

carpenter (third-person singular simple present carpenters, present participle carpentering, simple past and past participle carpentered)
* (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.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “carpenter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →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: /karpɛnˈteːr/, /ˈkarpɛntər/

### Noun

carpenter (plural carpenteres)
* 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)
* Alternative form of charpantier
** c. 1155, Wace, Le Roman de Brut:Maçons fist querre et carpenters Si fist refaire les moustersHe searched for masons and carpenters in order to rebuild the minsters.