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A biography of David Hume says

David Hume left the University of Edinburgh around 1733. Hume chose the job as a stool in a merchant's office in Bristol.

What is a stool?

Maulik V
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user150248
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3 Answers3

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Here's the reference to the biography in question.

The full sentence reads:

The careers open to a poor Scottish gentleman in those days were very few; and, as Hume's option lay between a travelling tutorship and a stool in a merchant's office, he chose the latter.

In this case a stool refers to "a single seat on legs or a pedestal and without arms or a back." link

A "stool" is not a job description, but a physical description of where he sat, in order to contrast it with the other option of a "travelling tutorship"

Your confusion is understandable, as, later in this book, there is a reference to a "Chair", which is a job title in academia.

In 1744, Hume's friends had endeavoured to procure his nomination to the Chair of "Ethics and pneumatic philosophy"...link

Which refers to Definition #3, here "a professorship."

Greg
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    +1 Brilliant. With the given context by the OP, it was pretty difficult to judge the position he held. The original text makes it clear. :) – Maulik V Jul 03 '18 at 06:35
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    The "confusion" between "stool" and "chair" is probably an intentional pun; as he wasn't able to obtain a chair, he needed to make do with a stool. – Guntram Blohm Jul 03 '18 at 09:36
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    "stool" sounds like the German word "Stuhl", which means chair (the thing to sit on), but it is also part of the compound word "Lehrstuhl" (wordwise translation teaching chair) meaning a steady professorship. – rexkogitans Jul 03 '18 at 09:44
  • @rexkogitans wow! So there might be a real connection with the German word (since English is a Germanic derived language anyway). – CPHPython Jul 03 '18 at 10:13
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    stool there can be understood as a metonym for the job itself. And workers assigned to stools are low on the pecking order. – TimR Jul 03 '18 at 12:02
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    @CPHPython The chance that "stool" and "Stuhl" are not cognate is vanishingly small. – Martin Bonner supports Monica Jul 03 '18 at 12:23
  • This is speculation but ... stool is also a current medical term for a piece of faeces. It's possible the term was in more widespread use in the eighteenth century and therefore a scatological pun (very popular at that time) was also being made. – user5505 Jul 03 '18 at 12:24
  • @Guntram - when my father-in-law (a professor) was granted an endowed Chair, he was given, as a gift, a lovely chair. For ELLs looking for a good example of a pun, this is a fun one. – Greg Jul 03 '18 at 17:06
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    @CBHPython Only insofar as both languages use their word for "chair" to indicate a professorship. As Guntram says, this is a pun in English about chair (sitting, and professorship) versus stool (only ever used in English to denote a backless chair). The German "Stuhl" is irrelevant to the passage. – Graham Jul 03 '18 at 17:17
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    @user5505 Except that there is no context which would suggest defecating in his office. The English have famously always enjoyed toilet humour, but there isn't any sense that it's being used here. – Graham Jul 03 '18 at 17:19
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    When I first saw the question, I thought it might have been trying to ask "What is a stool in 1337?" ;) – Neil Jul 04 '18 at 00:27
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    @CPHPython: I am quite convinced there is that connection. German Stuhl and English stool have almost the same pronounciation. But in England, nobility speaking French had their "chaise", which became a "chair" as a "fancy piece of furniture to sit on", while "stool" kept its meaning as the primitive thing peasants used. – Guntram Blohm Jul 04 '18 at 16:55
4

A picture may help 19th century Clerk’s Stool

19th century Clerk’s Stool

Philip Oakley
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0

Stool can also be used to describe a 'spy' or 'informer' in the enemy's camp, be it in politics or business.

Nathan Tuggy
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Mike M
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