As the long weekend closes and we return to work, let's look at some names of occupations.
Unusual ones; we are unlikely to have illustrative quotations this week.

moirologist - a hired mourner
You need have no fear that your funeral will be ill-attended.

The root -log- traces back to legein "speak"; hence a "death speaker". The moirologist might sing appropriate funeral songs, called myriologues.

tachygrapher - one who writes shorthand; a stenographer

Oh, Wordcrafter, I came across one in that Unusual Words link: CHIROTONSOR - Barber. Now, I don't know if it means a special kind of barber or not (with that highfalutin name and all!!).

accoucheuse – midwife
accoucheur - male midwife; obstetrician

At least that's what the dictionaries say. Rather sexist, do you think? Interestingly, althouh neither word is used frequently, the latter gets far greater use than the former.

quote:

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Thou eunuch of language; thou pimp of gender, murderous accoucheur of infant learning, thou pickle-herring in the puppet show nonsense.
- Robert Burns, to an anonymous critic.

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[This message was edited by wordcrafter on Wed Jan 7th, 2004 at 7:28.]

visagiste - a make-up artist
I wonder if they use this term in Hollywood.

quote:

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How much time, and how much trouble should a woman take in preparing herself for an evening with her fiancé? We have already addressed this problem several times is our column, but we are prompted to address it again after the publication of this little book, probably the work of a famous international visagiste who has coyly chosen to hide behind the pseudonym of Pauline Réage.
- Umberto Eco, draft of a review of L'Histoire d'O, published in Misreadings (1993)

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