Is a Handyman just a modern Tinker?

Time has a way of changing definitions.  At a point in time, a person who was not a tradesperson,  such as being in or having gone through an apprenticeship as a carpenter, plumber, etc... but made their living fixing and mending things.  Perhaps making anything from pots and pans, sharpening knives, etc...  That was a "Tinker".  

Back in a time when society was even more class conscious,  it was considered to be a very low class job in some places where status was important. 

In other places, the Tinker role was more respectable and appreciated.  Or at least not disdained and disrespected.  Most of history though remembers the Tinker as a low class, disreputable, and unskilled worker.  Even to thus day, people use the phrase, "to tinker with" as to not competently or successfully mess around with something. 

Enter the modern "Handyman."  

Still considered a "jack-of-all-trades" and not a "skilled" tradesperson.  Unfortunately,  still often considered as someone suspicious and potentially "shady" or disreputable. ESPECIALLY by tradespeople who consider a handyman as a "cheap" competitor. 

BUT!  It's still not all that bad.   Because many trained tradespeople will take on side jobs or extra work billing themselves as a "handyman" when work in their skill area is slow.  

In fact, most people who use the word "handyman" now to describe their work have at least one particular skill area that they have been trained and certified in, if not more.

The modern handyman is often a skilled specialist in some area. But then, the "tinker" of days gone by was not uncommonly a skilled metalworker or similar.   In fact, the word "Tinker" cones from, if history is to be believed,  from the sound of hammers tapping metal while shaping it into the form of pans and pots and other metal devices as needed, "tink, tink, tink."

Even today, the "handyman" much like the Tinker of old, does the work around a household or business that others do not want to do or are not knowledgeable of doing. While the stigma the the name "Tinker" had then is not remotely as low class now, the "Handyman" is still not as appreciated or "respectable" as it might be.