Chandler, meaning

[Rigger Mortice]

I didn't know that.
Without Googling do you know the origin of the word "Chandler"?

I had to look it up to answer a clue in SHMBO's crossword puzzle.

 

[Bru]

A dealer in candles, soap and other wax and fat based products yes?

(and no, if I'm right I didn't cheat!)

 

[Jamesuk]

Chandler: makes stupid jokes at the wrong moment but is a loveable character from Friends 'duurrrrr' (according to a girl sat next to me. i just asked 'when i say 'chandler' what is the first you think of'.)

As to the origin well im about as certain of finding the true source of the word as finding the answer 'who really framed roger rabbit'

To generalise: This interesting surname is of early medieval English origin, and is an occupational name for a maker or seller of candles.

I didnt know that so thanks for the thread ))))

Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/chandler#ixzz35OCltgxS

 

[Rigger Mortice]

A dealer in candles, soap and other wax and fat based products yes?

(and no, if I'm right I didn't cheat!)

Correct.
I had no idea. TBH I've never even thought about it but it's funny how language evolves.

I may as well mention Four Candles before anyone else does.

 

[sailorman]

do sailors wash then ????

 

[Champagne Murphy]

Tallow chandler. Got one or two in the family history. Must've smelt something awful

 

[prv]

I knew it was originally a candle maker or seller, but I'm still none the wiser as to how it shifted to mean a supplier of ships' gear.

Pete

 

[Bru]

I knew it was originally a candle maker or seller, but I'm still none the wiser as to how it shifted to mean a supplier of ships' gear.

Pete

Not just ships gear, you get theatrical chandlers too (Eg Flints)

I wonder whether chandlers expanded from supplying the candles to supplying the means of hanging them from the ceiling (rigging), hardware such as lanterns etc and so on eventually to the point where candles ceased to be a significant part of the business

 

[mjcoon]

I knew it was originally a candle maker or seller, but I'm still none the wiser as to how it shifted to mean a supplier of ships' gear.

Pete

I expect it has something to do with tallow being a major component of caulking (pre-Sikaflex etc!). See also oakum. (And no, I haven't Googled, either...)

Mike.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

I expect it has something to do with tallow being a major component of caulking (pre-Sikaflex etc!). See also oakum. (And no, I haven't Googled, either...)

Mike.

I was thinking the same.
Tallow was also used as a lubricant and, as it sparked off the Indian mutiny, it had something to do with guns.

 

[prv]

Not just ships gear, you get theatrical chandlers too (Eg Flints)

I imagine that probably went the other way (from ships to theatres). I know that when the first modern-style theatres were set up, they tended to employ ex-naval sailors as stagehands. This was because the gear for scenery etc used pretty similar technology to sailing ships - hemp ropes, wooden blocks, belaying pins, etc - and sailors were used to operating in teams as part of a large and intricate machine (the full-rigged ship has been described as mankind's most complex machine for hundreds of years). I don't know first hand, but I'm told that even today proper old-school stagehands refer to the stage as "the deck".

Pete

 

[sarabande]

we have a clause in the deeds which forbids us to tan leather or make candles !

 

[mjcoon]

we have a clause in the deeds which forbids us to tan leather or make candles !

Jolly good idea! My secondary school was in-between a tannery and a glue factory. The smells got us whichever way the wind blew...

Mike.

 

[prv]

we have a clause in the deeds which forbids us to tan leather or make candles !

Mine says I'm not allowed to convert the house into a gravel pit or a church

Pete

 

[Seajet]

A friend had a very good alternative dictionary of sailing;

' Chandler; well known writer of nautical detective novels such as ' The Big Sloop ' and ' Farewell My Lubberly '

 

[jdc]

The word may not have come to English directly from the existing English word 'chandler'. In the Germanic languages of the Hanseatic League such as Danish and Dutch 'handler' just means 'tradesman': I'm only speculating but is it possible that a chandler is an incorrect Anglicisation of 'Schip Handler', which is the chandler of modern usage?

 

[JumbleDuck]

Mine says I'm not allowed to convert the house into a gravel pit or a church

Mine says that if I grow any corn or wheat, I have to have it milled at the mill across the road. Which closed in 1931.

 

[Keen_Ed]

Not just ships gear, you get theatrical chandlers too (Eg Flints)

And the survival of Arthur Beale in London

 

[Bru]

Jdc may have a point, it could be a corruption of / confusion between a foreign phrase in and the English language occupation of chandler

I've never been entirely convinced about the sailors operating theatrical rigging theory. I've never seen any actual evidence of it although it's often stated as a fact. Sure, some out of work, retired from and / or disabled sailors probably worked in the theatres but the development of theatrical rigging goes all the way back to Shakespeare and beyond

Oh and by the way, the stage is the stage or sometimes the stage floor. A deck is a temporary floor laid over the permanent stage (by a touring production for example). Had to look that one up cos I've never heard the stage called "the deck"! Again there is, as far as I can see, no specific nautical connection

 

[Searush]

Jdc may have a point, it could be a corruption of / confusion between a foreign phrase in and the English language occupation of chandler

I've never been entirely convinced about the sailors operating theatrical rigging theory. I've never seen any actual evidence of it although it's often stated as a fact. Sure, some out of work, retired from and / or disabled sailors probably worked in the theatres but the development of theatrical rigging goes all the way back to Shakespeare and beyond

Oh and by the way, the stage is the stage or sometimes the stage floor. A deck is a temporary floor laid over the permanent stage (by a touring production for example). Had to look that one up cos I've never heard the stage called "the deck"! Again there is, as far as I can see, no specific nautical connection

There were sailing ships back then too - remember the Armada?