Sadler

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A craftsman who makes, repairs or sells saddles, bridles and other leather equipment for horses
2. Someone whose trade is producing saddles along with harness and related leatherwork for working animals
3. A person who fashions and supplies saddles, harnesses and similar tack, traditionally for riding and draft horses

Etymology: A sadler is a maker of saddles, and the word is about as transparent as an occupational name gets. It comes from Old English "sadol" (saddle) with the agent suffix "-ere" (one who does something), so a sadler was literally a "saddle-maker." The same pattern gave English many surnames, such as Taylor, Baker and Fletcher, which record what an ancestor did for a living. The word's real surprise is how it survived. Saddle-making was once a major trade, and the Saddlers' Company of London, a guild with roots going back to the medieval period, kept the term in official use long after most people stopped thinking of themselves as saddle-makers. For many English families, "Sadler" is simply a surname, passed down as a memory of a trade that has largely vanished.

Synonyms: saddler