shoemaker

Etymology

It is formed from English shoe + maker,^[2][3][4][5] first as shomaker;^[6][7] the Middle English form schounemaker has the plural of the first element.^[2] The OED compares Middle Low German schōmāker and Middle High German schuochmacher, modern German Schuhmacher.^[2] Old English had scōhere and scōhwyrhta for a shoemaker.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person whose trade is making shoes: 1381, in the Rolls of Parliament.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, and as a surname to the mid-14th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1350–1400.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline quotes Thomas Wright (1884) on the Anglo-Saxon shoewright, whose trade covered all leather goods, flasks and bags as well as shoes, and was much wider than the modern shoemaker's.^[3] From 1587 the word appears in English versions of the Latin proverb telling the shoemaker to stick to his last, that is, not to judge beyond his own trade;^[2] Etymonline also dates its use in proverbs to the 1580s.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as one whose trade is to make shoes.^[5] Since 1836 it has also named various fishes,^[2] such as the rainbow runner,^[4][6] and in Smyth's Sailor's Word-book (1867) a seabird, the skua.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records it for a shopkeeper who sells or repairs shoes.^[6] In English dialects shoemaker's pride was the creaking of new shoes.^[9]

Timeline

• 1381 – a person who makes shoes.^[2]
• 1587 – in the proverb about the shoemaker and his last.^[2]
• 1836 – the name of various fishes.^[2][4]
• 1867 – a name for the skua.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who makes, and often repairs, shoes and boots; a cobbler: Her grandfather was a shoemaker in a small market town.^[6][10][4]
2. A shopkeeper who sells or repairs shoes.^[6]
3. Any of several fishes, such as the rainbow runner or the threadfish.^[6][4]

Word family

• shoemaking

Related words

• shoe
• maker

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins