Tinkerer

A character who enjoys and excels working with metal objects, like olden shotguns and tomahawks.

To mess around with something and you don't really have a clue what your doing.

Tinkers is a term for a group of Irish Travellers who worked with tin and mended pots and pans from door to door in rural Ireland before urbanisation in the 1960's. This is a perjoritive term these days and is used to insult Irish Travellers, as gyppo is to insult Romani people (different ethnic nomads in Britain & Ireland).

Not all Irish Travellers were tinkers (from tinsmithing or tinsmith) as there were horse dealers, market traders etc.

Irish Travellers have their own distinct culture, traditions, way of life and language and are indigenious to Ireland and are said to be here in Ireland before the Celts arrived in Ireland 500 yrs BC.

noun--A non-professional person skilled at mechanical or electrical inventions and/or repairs.

verb--To engage in minor repairs or inventing.

Commonly used to define members of the Irish travelling community. The previous definition cites the use of 'tinker' in this context as ignorant. Maybe he/she is a tinker (in the metalwork sense of the word) and does not like his traditional profession to be used in such a manner. I would like to add that Irish travellers traditionally were very improvising metal workers and sold pots made of scrap metal to make a living (as opposed to topping trees badly and laying poor quality tarmacam like they do now).This is the long-standing origin of the association of Irish travellers with the word 'tinker'. They are tinkers. Hence the phrase, ' Any scrap copper there boss'.

Shortening of the word "tinceard" which is Gaelic for Tinsmith. Commonly used to describe Irish Travellers, although many now consider it an insult. People get confused between Gypsy's of Romany decent, and Irish Tinkers. Mainly because their so ignorant and born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

The state of intoxication between being buzzed and drunk.