fossickern.
/ˈfɒsᵻkə/, U.S. /ˈfɑsɪkər/, Australian English /ˈfɒsəkə/, New Zealand English /ˈfɒsəkə/ colloquial (originally and chiefly Australian and New Zealand).
A person who or creature that fossicks (in various senses of the verb); (in early use) spec. (Australian and New Zealand) a person who prospects for gold in an unsystematic or opportunistic fashion.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > miner > [noun] > prospector > for gold or diamonds
gold-finder1578
fossicker1852
Klondiker1897
sniper1902
pork-knocker1910
1852 Argus (Melbourne) 14 Jan. 2/6 These fossickers are a race of people, resembling drones in a community of bees, collecting their soil from the cells or holes which have been dug and abandoned by more industrious workmen.
1864 J. Rogers New Rush ii. 32 Steady old fossickers often get more Than the first who opens ground.
1891 Argus (Melbourne) 25 July 13/2 One could wish that all irrigationists would take the view that most of the native birds, and above all the swamp fossickers, are not merely friends but allies.
1940 E. C. Studholme Te Waimate 75 Some of these contract cooks were great fossickers and managed to find quite a lot of green stuff for vegetables.
1972 T. Keneally Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith 120 Old fossickers..kept maps in their head and nuggets in gunnysacks under the floor.
1996 S. Woolfe Leaning towards Infinity (1998) 89 I became a fossicker, a rummager, a spy, one of those people looking up through their eyebrows.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1852