I was at the AGM of the Institute of Linguists yesterday and talk, as always, turned to translation and translators. Someone mentioned that translator was also in the dictionary with the meaning 'shoemaker', which was a surprise to me, so I looked it up when I got home. Sure enough, this is what the OED has at 'translator': "One who transforms, changes, or alters; spec. a cobbler who renovates old shoes", and there are several citations going back to 1594. By association, the word translator also came to mean 'shoe'. This 1851 citation from is in the Dictionary: H. Mayhew (London Labour I. 51/2) "To wear a pair of second-hand ones [sc. boots], or ‘translators’ (as they are called), is felt as a bitter degradation."
The verb 'to translate' has a specific meaning in industrial use, according to the OED. Tailors would 'translate' garments, which means 'renovate' or 'cut down' and cobblers would translate shoes, which means 'make new boots from the remains of old ones".
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