worker
nounUK /ˈwɜː.kə/ · US /ˈwɝ.kɚ/
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom Proto-Germanic *werką Proto-West Germanic *werk Old English weorc Middle English werk Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere Middle English werkere, worcher, wercher English worker From Middle English werkere, worcher, wercher, equivalent to work + -er. Displaced the older term wright, from Old English wyrhta.
1
One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor.
- Near-synonym: employee
- Fret not thy ſelfe becauſe of euill doers, neither bee thou enuious againſt the workers of iniquitie.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 37:1:
4 more examples
- Writer Ta Chen, in a statistical study of industrial labor in China in 1933, recorded that 66.6 percent of the total number of workers in the four main industrial regions of Kwangtung were women. In Shun-te, 81.2 percent of the labor force were women.1986, Janice G. Raymond, A Passion for Friends: Toward a Philosophy of Female Affection, Boston: Beacon Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 124:
- Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese […] began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated. The poisoning was irreversible, and soon ended in psychosis and death. Nowadays workers are exposed to far lower doses and manganism is rare.2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:
- Although the radiation levels identified are high, a threat to human health is very unlikely because apart from workers at the site, no-one goes there.2017 February 2, Jeff Farrell, “Fukushima nuclear disaster: Lethal levels of radiation detected in leak seven years after plant meltdown in Japan”, in The Independent, London:
- That would allow employers to keep some tip money for themselves, as long as each worker made at least the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.2018 March 24, Lydia DePillis, “Few noticed, but Congress just banned restaurants from skimming tips”, in CNN:
2
A nonreproductive social insect, such as ant, bee, termite, or wasp.
3
Rare A female ant, bee, termite or wasp.
4
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A thread performing one instance of a particular task within a program.
- This FTP client spawns a separate worker for each file to be uploaded.
- Synonyms
- proletarian, worker
- Derived terms
165 terms
aid worker, anti-worker, antiworker, artworker, autoworker, bodyworker, brain worker, brassworker, bronzeworker, building worker, cabinetworker, camera worker, camera-worker, careworker, caseworker, clothworker, coalworker, construction worker, copperworker, counterworker, co-worker, coworker, craftworker, crowdworker, dayworker, day worker, day-worker, decoration worker, deskworker, dock worker, dockworker, domestic worker, dreamworker, enamelworker, essential worker, evilworker, exworker, faceworker, factoryworker, farm worker, farmworker, fieldworker, fireworker, fishworker, flameworker, flintworker, freezing worker, garmentworker, gasworker, gig worker, glassworker, goldworker, groundworker, guest worker, hairworker, handworker, hard worker, headworker, health worker, healthy worker bias, hideworker, homeworker, houseworker, hybrid worker, ironworker, itinerant worker, key worker, keyworker, knowledge worker, laceworker, lampworker, landworker, leatherworker, lightworker, lineworker, link worker, lush worker, lush-worker, McWorker, meatworker, metalworker, migrant worker, millworker, mineworker, miracle worker, nonworker, office worker, paperworker, peace worker, pieceworker, pipeworker, playworker, poll worker, portfolio worker, postal worker, pressworker, printworker, process worker, proworker, relief worker, remote worker, replicated worker, roadworker, rootworker, ropeworker, saltworker, sanitation worker, seasonal worker, second-storey worker, service worker, sex worker, shedworker, shellworker, shiftworker, shipworker, shock worker, shopworker, silverworker, social worker, spade-worker, spadeworker, steel worker, steelworker, steel-worker, stoneworker, storeworker, street worker, streetworker, subworker, teamworker, teleworker, threshold worker, timeworker, track worker, trackworker, underworker, undocumented worker, vibe worker, wageworker, war worker, war-worker, waterworker, waxworker, white-collar worker, wickerworker, wireworker, wonderworker, woodworker, woolworker, worker bee, workeress, workerism, workerist, workerless, workerlike, worker-priest, workers' compensation, workers' comp, workership, workers of the world, unite, workers' paradise, workers' party, workers' salute, youth worker, zincworker- Related terms
- :Category:Occupations
- Hypernyms
- person
- Hyponyms
- laborer, employee, husbandman, craftsperson, artisan, operator, physician, musician, clerk, merchant, athlete
- Holonyms
- labour force, workforce