Template talk:Tinker-surname

Template life

I noticed that some surname dab pages contain clumsy mismatched "See also" lists, so I started these surname-templates for uniformity. This one was spawned from my search of smiths in various languages: I was trying to find whether Kalderash Roma gave rise to any surnames. - Altenmann >t 07:48, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Slavic synonyms?

Hi All! There is a problem with the Slavic surnames. This is not sure whether they are equivalents to English Tinker. It should be checked, as well as other languages. Generally it was not a frequent occupation, and its meaning was a little unclear. Please, let's do something with that! Best regards, Propositum (talk) 12:14, 23 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It was an infrequent, but a rather specific occupation: people that were mending household utensils were itinerary, for the same reason that the occupation was infrequent. And in the past, at the time of surname formation all these surname formation, the occupations listed in the template had very similar meaning. See, e.g. dicdef: "tinker: 1. (esp formerly) a travelling mender of pots and pans" - which exactly "kotlyar" котляр, "kettle/pot maker". Later, in English the term acquired different meanings, and in Sclavic and Romance the term became archaic. Hence the impression that Slavic and English terms are different. But from the point of view of surname etymology they are basically equivalent. -No.Altenmann >t 15:52, 23 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! Yes, I agree that it may have changed meaning. Generally, kotlarz was a craftsman (often itinerary) making utensils (kotły, i.e. pots) from (sheet) metal. Probably he was also mending them. Nevertheless, surnames derived from it were not popular. Best regards, Propositum (talk) 09:27, 2 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]