the.com/chimney sweep
The grimy job that became a Victorian symbol of luck you'd shake hands with.
means A person whose job is to clean soot and ash from chimneys and flues, traditionally using brushes, rods, and sometimes small children sent up the shaft.
from A plain compound of two old English words: 'chimney,' from Old French 'cheminee' (a fireplace or hearth), itself from Late Latin 'caminata,' a room with a fireplace, rooted in Latin 'caminus,' a furnace or forge — a cousin of Greek 'kaminos,' an oven. 'Sweep' comes from Old English 'swapan,' to sweep or sweep along, related to the broad gesture of brushing dirt away. Put together, the term names exactly what the worker did: swept the chimney. The cultural baggage — the soot-blackened figure as a bringer of good luck, lucky to touch on a wedding day — grew up later around the trade, though the word itself is purely descriptive.
- child labor
- Tiny boys were sent up flues to scrub them
- cancer warning
- First occupational cancer ever identified, 1775, from soot
- wedding luck
- Brides still hire sweeps to attend their ceremonies
- top hat
- Their tall hats came from cast-off gentlemen's clothes
- new year
- Germans give marzipan sweeps for good fortune
bert in mary poppins — fictional character played by dick van dyke in the 1964 film, the most iconic chimney sweep in popular culture
chimney sweeps act 1834 — british legislation that regulated child labor in chimney sweeping, responding to widespread abuse of climbing boys
chimney sweeps union london — trade organization established in 1800s to professionalize sweeping and protect workers from exploitation