A carpenter was originally a maker of carriages, not houses
Carpenter traces back through Old French to the Latin carpentarius, a maker of carriages. English once had its own word for a builder in wood, wright, related to work, and it survives in wheelwright and boatwright. Some of the oldest carpentry yet found is not a house at all but timber linings for wells.
Wood, alongside stone, is among humanity's earliest building materials. A well casing of oak and hazel found at Ostrov in the Czech Republic dates to 5256 BC, and another from eastern Germany, around 7,000 years old, already used mortise and tenon joints and notched corners. Among the oldest wooden buildings still standing are China's Nanchan Temple from 782, England's Greensted Church, parts of which date from the 11th century, and Norway's medieval stave churches.
For millennia the craft passed from hand to hand with little written down; Vitruvius touched on carpentry in the oldest complete architectural text to survive, and printed builders' manuals and pattern books only became routine around the 1700s and 1800s. Machines changed the work. Sawmills spread through Europe by the 16th century. Steam power, cheap cut nails and the circular saw made balloon framing possible, beginning the decline of heavy post-and-beam timber framing. Concrete foundations later removed the need for massive timber sills, and drywall displaced plaster on wooden lath.
British usage splits the job in two. First fix covers everything done before plastering, such as roofs, floors and frames that end up hidden; second fix comes afterwards, fitting doors, windows and skirting. Making the timber moulds that hold wet concrete is called shuttering there. American usage long contrasted the heavier, stronger work of a carpenter with the lighter, ornamental work of a joiner.
Training traditionally runs from apprentice to journeyman to master. Into the early 20th century, journeymen often travelled to other regions to learn local styles before heading home; today the word just marks a level of skill. In Germany, Iceland and Japan, becoming a master carpenter is a demanding and expensive process, while in America the title can be used loosely. The trade remains heavily male: in the United States fewer than 5 percent of carpenters identify as women.
Source: Carpentry
