different between carpenter vs cabinetmaker

English

Etymology

From Middle English carpenter, from Anglo-Norman carpenter (compare Old French charpentier), from Late Latin carpent?rius (“a carpenter”), from Latin carpent?rius (“a wagon-maker, carriage-maker”), from Latin carpentum (“a two-wheeled carriage, coach, or chariot, a cart”), from Gaulish carbantos, from Proto-Celtic *karbantos (“chariot, war chariot”), probably related to Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”). More at car.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??.p?n.t?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??p?nt?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)p?nt?(?)
• Hyphenation: car?pen?ter

Noun

carpenter (plural carpenters)

1. A person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.
2. (nautical) A senior rating in ships responsible for all the woodwork onboard; in the days of sail, a warrant officer responsible for the hull, masts, spars and boats of a ship, and whose responsibility was to sound the well to see if the ship was making water.
3. A two-wheeled carriage.
4. (zoology) A carpenter bee.
   • 1968, Elliot C. G. Pinhey, Introduction to insect study in Africa (page 146)

     The large, stout African bees are carpenters (Xylocopa), making small tunnels in timber, housing few individuals.

5. (Canada, Britain, regional) A woodlouse.

Synonyms

• (person skilled at carpentry): joiner, chippy

Related terms

• carpentry (noun)
• The Carpenter (jocular: Jesus Christ)
• carpent, carpenting (nonstandard)

Derived terms

• carpent
• carpentering
• carpenter ant
• carpenter bee
• carpenter's pencil
• carpenter's square

Translations

Verb

carpenter (third-person singular simple present carpenters, present participle carpentering, simple past and past participle carpentered)

1. To work as a carpenter, cutting and joining timber.

   Synonym: (rare) carpent

Further reading

• carpenter in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• carpenter in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• carpenter at OneLook Dictionary Search

Middle English

Noun

carpenter (plural carpenters)

1. carpenter

Descendants

• English: carpenter

Old French

Noun

carpenter m (oblique plural carpenters, nominative singular carpenters, nominative plural carpenter)

1. Alternative form of charpantier

English

Etymology

cabinet +? maker

Noun

cabinetmaker (plural cabinetmakers)

1. A skilled woodworker who makes high-quality wooden furniture
   • 1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima

     He waited and waited, in the faith that Schinkel was dealing with them in his slow, categorical Teutonic way, and only objurgated the cabinetmaker for having in the first place paltered with his sacred trust. Why hadn't he come straight to him—whatever the mysterious document was—instead of talking it over with French featherheads?

Related terms

• cabinetmaking

Translations

See also

• carpenter
• joiner