gongfermor

gongfermor

English

Noun

gongfermor (plural gongfermors)

1. Alternative form of gong farmer
   • 1998, Julie L. Horan, Sitting Pretty: An Uninhibited History of the Toilet, Robson Books, page 33:

     A gongfermor worked during the night cleaning the cities cesspits. The name gongfermor comes from the Saxon word gang meaning to go off, and fermor from fey, to cleanse.

   • 2001, Paul B. Newman, Daily Life in the Middle Ages, McFarland & Company, page 142:

     For the projecting garderobes as well as in cases where the internal toilet shafts deposited the waste into cesspits rather than a river or moat, the financial accounts for many noble households reveal routine payments to gongfermors, men who made their living by digging out and carting away the solid waste that accumulated in these pits and ditches. The payments also show that being a gongfermor was a well-paid profession.

   • 2008, Struan Reid, Castle Life, PowerKIDS Press, page 20:

     Peter the gongfermor inspects the castle toilets. He performs many tasks around the castle, mostly picking up trash and cleaning out the moat.