A cordwainer (or cordovan) is somebody who makes shoes and other articles from fine soft leather. The word is derived from "cordwain", or "cordovan", the leather produced in Córdoba, Spain.

Historically, there was a distinction between a cordwainer, who made shoes, and a cobbler, who repaired them. However, this distinction gradually weakened, particularly during the twentieth century, with the predominance of shoe retailers who neither made nor repaired the shoes themselves.

In London, the occupation of cordwainers was historically controlled by the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers. There is a Cordwainer ward of the City of London, which is historically where most cordwainers lived and worked.

The word 'journeyman' comes from the French word journée, meaning the period of one day; this refers to his right to charge a fee for each day's work. He or she would normally be employed by a master craftsman, but would live apart and might have a family of his own. A journeyman could not employ others. In contrast, an apprentice would be bound to a master, usually for a fixed term of seven years, and lived with the master as a member of the household.

The terms jack and knave are sometimes used as informal words for journeyman. Hence 'jack of all trades, master of none' — someone who is educated in several fields of trade, but is not yet skilled enough in any to set up their own workshop as a master.

In the past, tuberculosis was called consumption, because it seemed to consume people from within, with a bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting.

Other names included phthisis (Greek for consumption) and phthisis pulmonalis; scrofula, (in adults), affecting the lymphatic system and resulting in swollen neck glands; tabes mesenterica, TB of the abdomen and lupus vulgaris, TB of the skin; wasting disease; white plague, because sufferers appear markedly pale; king's evil, because it was believed that a king's touch would heal scrofula; and Pott's disease, or Gibbus of the spine and joints. Miliary TB is an archaic term that is still occasionally used, and is when the infection invades the circulatory system resulting in x-ray lesions with the appearance of millet seeds. This form of TB is now more commonly named disseminated TB.

A person who stretched the cloth on a machine whilst it was drying (the derivation of the phase "to be on tenterhooks"). A person who looked after and maintained the machine used in the process.

A Back Tenter was employed at the back of the weaving looms, clearing away debris.

Also, Tenting was a term for watching items or a process; a person who generally looked after something e.g. a door tenter or pony tenter in the coal mining trade.

The English word is rooted in the Old English ‘iunge man’ or , ‘young man’ or ‘yonge man’, and this meaning possibly combined with ‘geaman’, ‘geman’, or ‘gauman’, meaning district, villager, or countryman rustic. In the Fifteenth Century, a ‘yeoman’ was also a farmer of middling social status who owned his own land and often farmed it himself into prosperity. In German occupational and social standing, the ‘yeoman farmer’ is known as a ‘Freibauer’ (meaning freehold farmer).

In the middle ages or medieval times, a ‘yeoman’ was identified as a rank, or position in a noble or royal household with titles such as: Yeoman of the Chamber, Yeoman of the Crown, Yeoman Usher, King's Yeoman, and various others. Most duties were connected with protecting the sovereign and dignitaries as a bodyguard, attending the sovereign with various tasks as needed, or duties assigned to his office.