What is a corrist maker ?

[shyted]

What is or was a corrist maker ? probably at the turn of the last century .

[Quizmonster]

The word 'corrist' does not appear to exist - at least in standard English or any of the better-known dialects. The closest I can find is 'chorist', meaning a singer in a choir, another version of 'chorister'. Presumably, a 'chorist-maker' would be a singing teacher. I've considered most of the possible alternative spellings...korist, korrist etc. Are you sure you've got it right? Perhaps you can offer us the context in which you found the word?

[shyted]

Thanks quizmaster .... the context is from the 1901 census listed under occupation for a 42 yr old man in Barking Essex. corrist...maker.

[Quizmonster]

Here's another try, then! On the assumption that a 'corrist' would be someone having to do with 'cors', just as a telephonist has to do with telephones, I decided to look up 'cor'. One meaning of that, common in earlier times, was a "round vessel", presumably some sort of barrel, based on a Hebrew word.

Your response above says "corrist...maker". That three-dot gap leads me to suspect that we might not be looking for a 'corrist maker' but for a 'corrist...maker of....whatever'...round vessels, for example! In other words, could our corrist be a sort of cooper?

[sft42]

A Cor is also used as an old fashion word for a type of Horn (musical instrument).....could this be a connection?

[doristwonk]

The obvious answer is a corssit maker, they never could spell around the turn of the century. Look what a botched up job the made of Chalmondley.

[sylvday]

Are you sure the census-taker actually wrote "corrist"? I've looked at some of the 1901 returns online, and although it is very neat the writing is sometimes hard to decipher. Are you looking at the original/copy of the actual census sheet or at the Census Office's transcription of it? If the latter, they may well have misread the writing.

[shyted]

What can I say chaps ... thank you very much. I am erring towards the idea that it has been mispelt either from or on the original census. I feel that if he was a cooper they would have put cooper. Please let me know if anyone knows for sure.

[Cathy]

Leading on from Quizmonster's answer, maybe it's something to do with a coricle maker. A coricle is a round boat made for one person. Here's a website if you want some more info. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/christopher.sauvarin/

[Quizmonster]

Here's my last attempt. A 'corf' was an old name for a basket, such as was used in fishing - common enough in Essex - mining etc. There seems to be no reference to a 'corfist', as such, but the general shapes of 'r and 'f' - in handwriting particularly - are not very different, with one basically just a little taller than the other. Someone transcribing an old document might easily mistake 'corfist' for 'corrist'.

So...I give you...for the very last time...ta-raa...a corfist or basket-weaver! (The two trade-names might have been used interchangeably, Shy, so there's no certainty that one would have been used in preference to the other. The same may have been true of corist and cooper, of course.)

[omblod]

How big is the gap between the words that you've represented with ...? Perhaps the first word is "Chorister" spelt wrongly and minus it's ending, whilst the second is a completely separate word ending with "-maker" and missing it's start. eg CORRISTer candleMAKER.