Etymology From rough + neck, originally "someone who works a manual labour job".
1
US, Colloquial A labourer on an oil rig or in the oilpatch, either skilled or semiskilled.
This first ship had a small geophysical-type drilling rig mounted over the side of the ship with a steel grid runround for the roughnecks, who stood in knee-deep water while making connections or pulling the drill string.1992, Elmer P. Wheaton, “William Bradford Whitehill Rand”, in Memorial Tributes: Volume 5, page 234:
As for the minerals, there has been a good deal of drilling along the big river; trucks and roughnecks no longer garner any notice.2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 286:
2
US, Colloquial, Dated A dirty or low-paid worker, a labourer; an ironworker in an ironworks or a steelworker in a steelworks.
3
US, Colloquial Someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person.
LaTisha has long wanted to show Carole sheʼs not the roughneck she used to be, the roughneck who wasnʼt good enough to be her friend.2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 202:
Etymology From rough + neck, originally "someone who works a manual labour job".
1
To work as a laborer on an oil rig.
There was a time not long ago when this region appeared as some enduring mystification, its citizenry best known for roughnecking on the North Slope […]2009 January 13, Michael Brick, “Racing's Last Frontier”, in New York Times: