Digital frustra-scriptor – what's your Victorian job title?

Block printers at work, c1880. Photograph: Print Collector/Getty Images

If LinkedIn has made you feel as if you’re living in the golden age of self-regarding professional chest-puffery, then think again. Exeter University’s Alun Withey has discovered that Victorians were the masters of pretentious job titles, scouring periodicals to discover booksellers describing themselves as “bibliopoles”, journalists as “couranteers” and wigmakers as “tripocoptontic perruquiers”.

Perhaps it’s time that we took a leaf from the Victorians and started souping up our own job titles beyond all recognition. See if you can guess which current roles the following describe.

1. Perambulatory crapulous sustenancier

   1. Dog walker

   2. App-based food delivery provider

   3. Door-to-door salesman

2. Strategic matercenery

   1. Toymaker

   2. Interior designer

   3. Mumtrepreneur

3. Imponderable subordinate

   1. 3D graphic artist

   2. Uber driver

   3. Virtual assistant

4. Departmental jargogle correspondant

   1. Social media manager

   2. Office postman

   3. Professor of economics

5. Digital frustra-scriptor

   1. Coder

   2. Freelance journalist

   3. Photographer

6. Spontotronic lifestyle gorgoniser

   1. Television presenter

   2. Surgeon

   3. Instagram personality

7. Remote verisimilitude bedeviller

   1. Russian propaganda bot

   2. Painter and decorator

   3. Barista

8. Artisanal brawnœuvrer

   1. Masseur

   2. Butcher

   3. Makeup artist

Solutions

1:B, 2:C, 3:C, 4:A, 5:B, 6:C, 7:A, 8:A

Scores

1. 6 and above.

2. 7 and above.

3. 8 and above.

4. 0 and above.

5. 3 and above.