Editing Tinker

{{Short description|Wandering tinsmith}}
{{About|itinerant tinsmiths}}
{{Redirect|Tinkerer|the Marvel Comics villain|Tinkerer (Marvel Comics)|the toys|Tinkertoy}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
[[File:Tinker by Krieger.jpg|thumb|A photograph of a tinker by [[Ignacy Krieger]], nineteenth century]]

'''Tinker''' or '''tinkerer''' is an archaic term for an [[wikt:itinerant|itinerant]] [[tinsmith]] who mends household utensils.

==Description==
''Tinker'' for metal-worker is attested from the thirteenth century as ''tyckner'' or ''tinkler''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/scottishgypsiesu00macr/scottishgypsiesu00macr_djvu.txt|title=Full text of 'Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts'|website=archive.org|year=1894}}</ref> Some travelling groups and [[Romani people]] specialised in the trade, and the name was particularly associated with indigenous [[Irish Travellers]] and [[Scottish_Gypsy_and_Traveller_groups#Indigenous_Highland_Travellers|Scottish Highland Travellers]] – the name of whose language ''[[Beurla Reagaird]]'' means "metalworkers".<ref name ="Queen's">Kirk, J. & Ó Baoill, D. ''Travellers and their Language'' (2002) [[Queen's University Belfast]] {{ISBN|0-85389-832-4}} {{page?|date=May 2022}}</ref>  However, this use is considered offensive.<ref name="ced">{{cite news |title=Tinker|url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tinker |work=Collins English Dictionary |edition=Complete & Unabridged eleventh |access-date=24 October 2012}}</ref>

The term "tinker", in British English, may refer to a mischievous child.<ref name="ced"/>

=="Tinker's dam" or "damn" and "tinker's curse"==
Both phrases '''[[wikt:tinker's damn|tinker's damn]]''' and '''tinker's curse''' can be applied to something considered insignificant.  An example: "I don't give a tinker's curse what the doctor thinks", sometimes shortened to, "I don't give a tinker's about the doctor."<ref name="Phrase Finder" />

A tinker's dam is also reportedly a temporary patch to retain solder when repairing a hole in a metal vessel, such as a pot or a pan.  It was used by tinkers and was usually made of mud or clay, or sometimes other materials at hand, such as wet paper or dough.  The material was built up around the outside of the hole, so as to plug it.  Molten [[solder]] was then poured on the inside of the hole.  The solder cooled and solidified against the dam and bonded with the metal wall.  The dam was then brushed away. The remaining solder was then [[rasp]]ed and smoothed down by the tinker.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1rZCAQAAIAAJ&q=%22dough+or+of+soft+clay+raised+around+a+spot+which+a+plumber%22 |title= Tinkers |author1=Bonner, John |author2=Curtis, George William  |year=1905 |work=Harper's Weekly |volume=49|pages=1424|access-date=2 April 2012}}</ref>

In the ''Practical Dictionary of Mechanics'' of 1877, Edward Knight gives this definition: "Tinker's-dam: a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless".<ref name="Phrase Finder">{{cite web|last=Martin|first=Gary|title=Tinker's Dam|url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/tinkers-damn.html|website=The Phrase Finder|date=11 December 2023 }}</ref>

It is thought that the use of "tinker's dam" as something worthless may have evolved into the [[phrase]] "tinker's curse".  Although ''tinker's curse'' is attested in 1824, which was thought to be earlier than ''tinker's dam'',<ref name="Phrase Finder" /> "tinkers damn" is attested in 1823.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Rambler's Magazine: Or, Fashionable Emporium of Polite Literature ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GV43AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA216|date=1 May 1823|publisher=Benbow|page=216}}</ref> An alternative derivation is that a tinker's curse or cuss was considered of little significance, possibly because tinkers (who worked with their hands near hot metal) were reputed to swear (curse) habitually.<ref name="Phrase Finder" />

When working with copper, tin, gold, or other low-melting-point metals, the tinker would construct a charcoal furnace out of bricks and mud. At the bottom, he would leave a hole for the molten metal to pour out into a trough that led to a casting or a depression for an ingot. The hole was covered with a temporary "dam" which would be broken when the liquid metal had puddled at the bottom of the furnace. The function of the blockage coined the term "tinker's dam" as being something that lasted only temporarily, as it was to be destroyed or made useless in the very near future.

==See also==
* [[Mercheros]]
* [[Irish Travellers]]
* [[Scottish Travellers]]
* [[Tinsmith]]
* [[Tinker, Tailor]]; a traditional children's counting game

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|tinker's dam|tinker's curse}}
{{Wiktionary|tinker|tinkerer}}
* {{Commons category-inline|Tinkers}}

{{Irish Travellers}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Scottish Travellers]]
[[Category:Irish Travellers]]
[[Category:Romani culture]]
[[Category:Metalworkers]]