the.com/locksmith
the only thief you pay to break in, then thank profusely
means A tradesperson who makes, fits, repairs, and picks locks and keys — and who can let you back into your own home or car when you're locked out.
from A plain compound, as honest as the trade: "lock" plus "smith." The first comes from Old English loc, a fastening or bolt, kin to words meaning to close or shut. The second, smith, is the ancient word for a metalworker — one who strikes and shapes metal, the same root that gives us blacksmith and goldsmith and the surname Smith. So a locksmith is, quite literally, a smith of locks: a metalworker who forged the cleverest little prisons for keys.
- ancient trade
- Locks predate the wheel by centuries in Egypt
- masters guild
- Medieval locksmiths doubled as society's first metalworkers
- pin tumbler
- Modern locks rely on a 1860s Yale design
- lock picking
- Now a competitive hobby called locksport
- trust paradox
- Strangers hand them keys to everything they own
the great lock — a famous padlock at pont des arts in paris that became so heavy (45 tons) engineers had to remove it in 2015
houdini escape artist — harry houdini famously escaped from locked trunks, handcuffs, and jail cells throughout the early 1900s
locksport hobbyists — competitive lock picking sport with world championships, fastest record under 10 seconds for certain locks