trumpmaker

1) In the dialect of the West Riding, ‘trump’ appears to have been a general word for a spring knife, that is a penknife or pocket-knife.

It was listed by Wright but he offered no examples, so the earliest evidence of its use is the occupational term in the Sheffield registers: 1659 Nicholas Stevin of Sheffeld trumpmaker

1706 Robert Bullas Trumpmaker, Sheffield. The term occurred as late as 1740, when Simeon Handley, trumpmaker, was recorded in the parish register, after which it seems to have given way to pen and pocket-knife maker.

places Sheffield
dates 1659 1706 1740

Related Content Loading...

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0