thumb|A photograph of a tinker by [[Ignacy Krieger, nineteenth century]]
Tinker or tinkerer is an archaic term for an itinerant tinsmith who mends household utensils.
Description
thumb|[[The Tinker (painting)|The Tinker by Alphonse Legros, 1874]]
Tinker for metal-worker is attested from the thirteenth century as tyckner or tinkler. Some travelling groups and Romani people specialised in the trade, and the name was particularly associated with indigenous Irish Travellers and Scottish Highland Travellers – the name of whose language Beurla Reagaird means "metalworkers". However, this use is considered offensive.
The term "tinker", in British English, may refer to a mischievous child.
In the Practical Dictionary of Mechanics of 1877, Edward Knight gives this definition: "Tinker's-dam: a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless".
It is thought that the use of "tinker's dam" as something worthless may have evolved into the phrase "tinker's curse". Although tinker's curse is attested in 1824, which was thought to be earlier than tinker's dam, An alternative derivation is that a tinker's curse or cuss was considered of little significance, possibly because tinkers (who worked with their hands near hot metal) were reputed to swear (curse) habitually.