It’s because most anvils were tuned to G. It was considered the original root scale step because anvils often worked best when tuned to G. But back in those days, it was called Sol (Solfège.) In french, Sol means ground, which is at the bottom. Ergo, every hammer driven by the smith was really just a sort of mating call that sent all the bottoms running to the smith’s doorstep. This is where the expression “she built like an anvil” comes from
Social darwinism isn’t that, although it’s big with people of Netherlandian extraction, Calvinists.
Social darwinism is the belief that everything is preordained, and if you are rich, god favors you, if poor, god hates you. It would be irresponsible to help the poor because god wants them to suffer, and so forth. Like the Prosperity Doctrine.
Also, a bunch of Wrights too: Cartwright, Wainwright, Shipwright, Wheelright, etc.
Then there’s just plain occupational names: Miller, Farmer, Thatcher, and so on.
Had this tradition continued, the information age would have given us: Chipwright, Cloudwright, Videosmith, Hacksmith, Coder, Tester, Gamer, Printer, and probably a ton more.
I always found it fun to learn about these old timey professions that (basically) no longer exist, but still exist as names, like:
Cooper: a craftsman who makes barrels, casks, etc.,
Hooper: an assistant to the cooper. Someone who put the hoops (bands of metal or wood) around the barrels. This one is especially good because coopers took over the job of putting the bands on, so the job died off while “cooper” still existed as a job, yet there are still people with that name
Fuller / Walker: a person who softens and cleans wool, sometimes by walking on it, sometimes using the hands
Clark: this one still exists, but is spelled and pronounced differently as “clerk”.
Turner: someone who operated a lathe. Basically a specialized machinist.
Marshall: this is a fun one. Originally it had to do with horses, it was “mareshal”, but then somehow evolved to be a high officer of the court, unrelated to “martial” which sounds the same but comes from “Mars” the god of war.
Parker: The job exists now, but is more “park ranger” or just “ranger”
Baxter: Baker – but the feminine form of the word. Similarly “Webster” is the female form of “Weber” (Weaver), Brewster is the female version of Brewer, Spinster is the female form of Spinner, etc.
“Court” I think, in this sense, was the king’s court, not a judicial court. But, I think you’re onto something about how it started as someone who took care of horses then probably evolved to being in charge of horses or something, to then being the official with the big job related to horses. I guess it’s a bit like how “secretary” can be either a person making near minimum wage who does office work, or it can be the most powerful person in the cabinet who deals with X.
I reckon the high prevalance of the Smith surname isn’t really down to a highly smith-based economy, but because it was a quite respectable profession for both social classes - high paid, possibly self employed, talented/educated - but also useful strong and dependable.
So if you have to choose between different surnames you might therefore go:
“ah my parent was a smith so i can be a smith too”
“my parent chose to use their smith parent’s surname so i will choose it too because it gets respect”
Or, maybe smiths always needed a lot of helpers and instead of taking the surname “Prentice/Prentiss” they would just go with Smith, as it’s neater.
Maybe those with some experience working a forge or shaping metal had more liberty to move to different towns for work; In a new town, locals who’d lived there their whole life wouldn’t need an identifying surname (assuming this is pre-surname consolidation in Britain) but the Smiths would have that as a tradename, thus advertising their services.
Presumably also, every town needed at least one local tinkerer or metalworker - there are/were like 10,000s of distinct villages all over England. So if we presume that tradespeople always have surnames of their trade and non-tradespeople (like farm labourers) don’t usually feel a need to, The Smiths already have a greater share of the surnamed population in the census.
Lastly, I’m guessing the smiths had a somewhat better quality of life in relation to disease and poverty. Possibly the hot forges kill off harmful bacteria and they had “middle class” income and no vulnerability to random agriculture failure, like farmers did.
One reason why I don’t think it’s because “the king ordered loads and loads of people to become smiths during one particular war and we were left with an overabundance of Smiths” is because The high prevelance of the “Smith” surname is also observed in Germany, Spain, Poland and elsewhere. As Schmidt, Herrero and Kowalski, respectively. The more you know!
Smiths and millers were common enough professions that basically every village had one but rare enough to be useful as a description. John the farmer would have been way too vague, leading to names that come from physical appearance, place of origin or relatives‘ given names.
Smiths were generally wealthier so they had a better diet and what amounted to medical care, and they were rarely put in combat because they were needed to make weapons. So more of them survived.
People in cthe middle ages in ciities were wealthier and healthier, and free. People in the country were slaves or tools of the local lords. City air makes you free they would say, cities were filled with free people, and run by guilds generally, smiths chief amongst them. Other cities were more merchant ruled chiefly. The nobility forever looked down on commerce, everything except agriculture and war generally.
You couldn’t just move into a city, you needed an in, like getting accepted as an apprentice in a guild.
The past had a LOT of smiths.
Or maybe it was the sexiest profession back then.
It’s because most anvils were tuned to G. It was considered the original root scale step because anvils often worked best when tuned to G. But back in those days, it was called Sol (Solfège.) In french, Sol means ground, which is at the bottom. Ergo, every hammer driven by the smith was really just a sort of mating call that sent all the bottoms running to the smith’s doorstep. This is where the expression “she built like an anvil” comes from
Best thread this month
So Mason = Built like a brick shithouse
Read above you thinking… You mean she’s a brick… house?
She’s mighty, mighty, just letting it all hang out.
reads like a tr*mp xeet lol
Only the sexy professions reproduced
Smiths got all the tang.
Seems many did not, but I did, see what you did there
Welcome to social Darwinism
Social darwinism isn’t that, although it’s big with people of Netherlandian extraction, Calvinists.
Social darwinism is the belief that everything is preordained, and if you are rich, god favors you, if poor, god hates you. It would be irresponsible to help the poor because god wants them to suffer, and so forth. Like the Prosperity Doctrine.
I was kidding
Didn’t someone tell you it’s illegal to make jokes on Lemmy
Metalsmith, Blacksmith, Gunsmith, Goldsmith, Silversmith, Locksmith, Coppersmith, Tinsmith, Wordsmith, Songsmith
…we didn’t start the fire ♫♫
“Hey, kids! It’s time for the PokeRap!”
Gonna, gonna, gonna forge 'em all. Gonna forge 'em all, Smithemon!
Poopsmith
Also, a bunch of Wrights too: Cartwright, Wainwright, Shipwright, Wheelright, etc.
Then there’s just plain occupational names: Miller, Farmer, Thatcher, and so on.
Had this tradition continued, the information age would have given us: Chipwright, Cloudwright, Videosmith, Hacksmith, Coder, Tester, Gamer, Printer, and probably a ton more.
I always found it fun to learn about these old timey professions that (basically) no longer exist, but still exist as names, like:
Maybe “Marshalls” working for courts would set out on horses to round up runaways and bring them before the court.
“Court” I think, in this sense, was the king’s court, not a judicial court. But, I think you’re onto something about how it started as someone who took care of horses then probably evolved to being in charge of horses or something, to then being the official with the big job related to horses. I guess it’s a bit like how “secretary” can be either a person making near minimum wage who does office work, or it can be the most powerful person in the cabinet who deals with X.
Man, sign me the fuck up for Hacksmith or Codewright. I’m all for nominative determinism like this
Whitesmith is also used
I reckon the high prevalance of the Smith surname isn’t really down to a highly smith-based economy, but because it was a quite respectable profession for both social classes - high paid, possibly self employed, talented/educated - but also useful strong and dependable. So if you have to choose between different surnames you might therefore go:
Or, maybe smiths always needed a lot of helpers and instead of taking the surname “Prentice/Prentiss” they would just go with Smith, as it’s neater.
Maybe those with some experience working a forge or shaping metal had more liberty to move to different towns for work; In a new town, locals who’d lived there their whole life wouldn’t need an identifying surname (assuming this is pre-surname consolidation in Britain) but the Smiths would have that as a tradename, thus advertising their services.
Presumably also, every town needed at least one local tinkerer or metalworker - there are/were like 10,000s of distinct villages all over England. So if we presume that tradespeople always have surnames of their trade and non-tradespeople (like farm labourers) don’t usually feel a need to, The Smiths already have a greater share of the surnamed population in the census.
Lastly, I’m guessing the smiths had a somewhat better quality of life in relation to disease and poverty. Possibly the hot forges kill off harmful bacteria and they had “middle class” income and no vulnerability to random agriculture failure, like farmers did.
One reason why I don’t think it’s because “the king ordered loads and loads of people to become smiths during one particular war and we were left with an overabundance of Smiths” is because The high prevelance of the “Smith” surname is also observed in Germany, Spain, Poland and elsewhere. As Schmidt, Herrero and Kowalski, respectively. The more you know!
Smiths and millers were common enough professions that basically every village had one but rare enough to be useful as a description. John the farmer would have been way too vague, leading to names that come from physical appearance, place of origin or relatives‘ given names.
“De boer”, or “the farmer” is the 10th most common surname in the Netherlands. Top three are “The young”, “son of Jan” and “The Frisian”.
Who’s Jan
ur mom
(???)
Smiths were generally wealthier so they had a better diet and what amounted to medical care, and they were rarely put in combat because they were needed to make weapons. So more of them survived.
That’s how it works for my dwarves, too.
People in cthe middle ages in ciities were wealthier and healthier, and free. People in the country were slaves or tools of the local lords. City air makes you free they would say, cities were filled with free people, and run by guilds generally, smiths chief amongst them. Other cities were more merchant ruled chiefly. The nobility forever looked down on commerce, everything except agriculture and war generally.
You couldn’t just move into a city, you needed an in, like getting accepted as an apprentice in a guild.
Totally true, and there were also smiths scattered around rural areas in small towns like mechanics today.
Smith be smithing tho