Category:Carpenter

Car"pen*ter, n. Etym: [OF. carpentier, F. charpentier, LL. carpentarius, fr. L. carpentum wagon, carriage.]

Defn: An artificer who works in timber; a framer and builder of houses, ships, etc.

Syn. -- Carpenter, Joiner. The carpenter frames and puts together roofs, partitions, floors, and other structural parts of a building. The joiner Supplies stairs, doors shutters, mantelpieces, cupboards, and other parts necessary to finishing the building. In America the two trades are commonly united. Carpenter ant (Zoöl.), any species of ant which gnaws galleries in the wood of trees and constructs its nests therein. They usually select dead or somewhat decayed wood. The common large American species is Formica Pennsylvanica. -- Carpenter bee (Zoöl.), a large hymenopterous insect of the genus Xylocopa; -- so called because it constructs its nest by gnawing long galleries in sound timber. The common American species is Xylocopa Virginica.

- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Carpenter - An artificer in stone, iron, and copper, as well as in wood (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Chronicles 14:1; Mark 6:3). The tools used by carpenters are mentioned in 1 Samuel 13:19, 1 Samuel 13:20; Judges 4:21; Isaiah 10:15; Isaiah 44:13. It was said of our Lord, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55); also, "Is not this the carpenter?" (Mark 6:3). Every Jew, even the rabbis, learned some handicraft: Paul was a tentmaker. "In the cities the carpenters would be Greeks, and skilled workmen; the carpenter of a provincial village could only have held a very humble position, and secured a very moderate competence."