Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CAR'PEN-TER, n. [Fr. charpentier; Sp. carpintero; Port. carpenteiro; It. carpentiere, a cart-wright, or coach-maker; L. carpentarius, from carpentum, a chariot.]

An artificer who works in timber; a framer and builder of houses, and of ships. Those who build houses are called house-carpenters, and those who build ships are called ship-carpenters. In New-England, a distinction is often made between the man who frames, and the man who executes the interior wood-work of a house. The framer is the carpenter, and the finisher is called a joiner. This distinction is noticed by Johnson, and seems to be a genuine English distinction. But in some other parts of America, as in New-York, the term carpenter includes both the framer and the joiner; and in truth both branches of business are often performed by the same person. The word is never applied, as in Italy and Spain, to a coach-maker.