| 释义 |
day-tale, daytal, datal|ˈdeɪteɪl, ˈdeɪtəl, ˈdeɪt(ə)l|
[f. day + tale reckoning, etc. In sense 1 parallel to nighter-tale in Chaucer, etc., where the sense ‘reckoning’ appears to pass into that of ‘the time counted or reckoned’ (to night or to day). There appears to be no direct connexion between this and sense 2.]
†1. Day-time. a daye tale: by day. Obs.
1530Palsgr. 699/2 A daye tale he scoulketh in corners and a nyghtes he gothe a thevyng.
2. The reckoning (of work, wages, etc.) by the day. Chiefly attrib., reckoned, paid, or engaged by the day, as in day-tale hand, day-tale labour, day-tale wages, day-tale work, etc.; day-tale man, a day-labourer; day-tale pace, ‘a slow pace’ (Halliw.).
1560Summ. Certain Reasons in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 478 Men that tooke dayetall wages. 1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 45 It shall bee accounted but for halfe a day with those that worke with yow by daytaile. 1761Sterne Tr. Shandy (1770) III. 143 (D.) Holla! you chairman, here's sixpence; do step into that bookseller's shop, and call me a day-tall critick. 1770Holmesfield Crt. Rolls in Sheffield Gloss. Addenda, Being daytall-man to Mathias Webster. 1788W. Marshall Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Daitle (that) (that is, day-tale), adj. by the day; as, ‘daitle-man’, a day-labourer; ‘daitle-work’, work done by the day. 1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., Daytal, tale or reckoning by the day. 1888W. Somerset Word-bk., Day-tale fellow, Day-tale man, a labourer hired by the day. Hence a term of reproach, meaning a lazy, slack workman whose only care is to have his wages, and to do as little as he can to earn them. 1892Labour Commission Gloss., Datal hands, hands employed in cotton-mills at a fixed rate per week of 56½ hours. |