• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Any Answers? (Slang Terms For Tradesmen)

Floyd1 said:
What annoys me is when they send a guy around to fix, say for eg, the door on your fridge (because even though it's only a few weeks old it's already fallen off) and they call the guy 'an engineer'.
Click to expand...
When I worked in Building Services our trade were known as commissioning engineers. We set up air conditioning, exhaust, heating and cooling systems to name the most common.
When working in the Middle East I was berated for having engineer in my title when I had no degree. I pointed out to the guy haranguing me that it was the design engineers with the degrees who messed everything up and it was my trade that people relied on to put it all right and make it work.
 
Tempest63 said:
When I worked in Building Services our trade were known as commissioning engineers. We set up air conditioning, exhaust, heating and cooling systems to name the most common.
When working in the Middle East I was berated for having engineer in my title when I had no degree. I pointed out to the guy haranguing me that it was the design engineers with the degrees who messed everything up and it was my trade that people relied on to put it all right and make it work.
Click to expand...
Yes, not got a problem with that at all. It's the ones who just fit a door onto a fridge or replace the cover of the phone mastersocket (two screws) that I'm speaking of.
 
Nemo said:
So what are:-
Roofers, Gas Fitters & Plumbers known as?. 'Cos I haven't a clue.
Click to expand...

In Australia & NZ, these are all referred to as "tradies" (pronounced 'tray-deez'), including the preceding vocational disciplines you mentioned.

I've sometimes wondered whether the considerably more-regulated environments for 'tradespeople' to be regulated / licensed across the Commonwealth & North America has generated this name.

I mean as opposed to the very-loose non-arrangement in the UK (where, with the exception of gas engineers and (nearly) electricians, "tradesmen" appear able to ply their trade in the absence of much in the way of formal qualifications or certificates, and there's a roaring trade in DIY supplies to assist home owners in being able to spend lots of money and endanger themselves & their families on a recreational basis.

There's some evidence of this "tradies" tag also gaining currency in the UK amongst a certain section of middle-aged Brits (due to earlier formative life exposures to the 1980s/90s televisual imprinting of Neighbours/Home&Away/ etc). These are also the kind of Britons who will unconsciously use terms such as 'bunking off school' or 'let's crack open a couple of tins over the barbie' in an entirely non-ironic & natural way, expressions that I consider when used by non-Australasians are thereafter sufficient grounds for summary execution (I don't mean for first offenders, I'm not a total monster).

Subsequent tangent regarding the phrase "bunking off" was moved to:
The Continuing Insult To The English Language
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/the-continuing-insult-to-the-english-language.31931/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ermintruder said:
I mean as opposed to the very-loose non-arrangement in the UK (where, with the exception of gas engineers and (nearly) electricians, "tradesmen" appear able to ply their trade in the absence of much in the way of formal qualifications or certificates, and there's a roaring trade in DIY supplies to assist home owners in being able to spend lots of money and endanger themselves & their families on a recreational basis.
Click to expand...
Oh I don't know. We have some very bad 'tradespeople' here or 'cowboys' as they're known.

I once worked for a guy who was a joiner but we did everything - (on larger jobs we'd sometimes get other trades in though) - and to a very high (actually pedantic) standard. I'm talking of if the screws on a light switch or door hinge didn't all face the same way you'd get a rollicking.
I learnt a lot about how to do things properly while there.

He once told me that he'd employed a joiner who had 'qualifications' for just about everything and yet he was absolutely useless and he had to sack him.

Also, aren't diy stores everywhere?
 
Lamplighters were 'Leeries':

More Information:
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2012/11/scots-word-of-the-season-leerie/

FjcM6_8XkAAO7VT.png
 
 
I'm a window cleaner and an American lady phoned me a few weeks back and said she'd been after a 'shiner' for ages. When I questioned the word 'shiner' she said 'you do clean windows don't you?'

I don't know if that is a term used all over the US or not. She said where she come comes from in NY that is the term used.
 
Do materials and other terms count as well?

'Gobbo' is the term for sand/cement mortar in Derbyshire.
And 'rosting' to mean straining yourself too much, ie trying to lift something that's too heavy etc.
 
Trevp666 said:
I thought that any mixed/prepared building material was usually just referred to as 'muck'?
Click to expand...
I've heard that but I think it's more a southern term.
Derbyshire has it's own unique language- or used to do, perhaps it's not as broad these days.
 
kesavaross said:
I'm a window cleaner and an American lady phoned me a few weeks back and said she'd been after a 'shiner' for ages. When I questioned the word 'shiner' she said 'you do clean windows don't you?'

I don't know if that is a term used all over the US or not. She said where she come comes from in NY that is the term used.
Click to expand...
A 'shiner' here used to be a term for a black eye.
 
I really can't think of any terms that we in my area of the world use for tradespeople. Oh, unless that lol. We do tend to make some of our job titles more inclusive. Postal worker, police officer etc.

But I think that we unimaginative lot just refer them as their trade name. Electrician, plumber etc.

Of course you do have to look out for someone who claims to be Jack of all Trades. Most people claiming that they do everything are often not of any professional trade.
 
Trevp666 said:
IIRC the saying was "A jack of all trades is master of none".
Click to expand...
Yes, hence the "job" title:). Of course it is used in reference to people advertising that they do some of everything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top