off-bearern.
/ˈɒfbɛːrə/, U.S. /ˈɔfˌbɛrər/, /ˈɑfˌbɛrər/ A person who bears or carries off something; spec. a worker who moves newly moulded bricks away from a brickmaking machine or moulding table; (also) one who carries off sawn wood in a timber mill.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > other manual or industrial workers > [noun] > porter
bearereOE
bermanc1000
portera1382
carriera1460
crocheteur1579
off-bearer1856
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > producer > maker of bricks or tiles > [noun] > brick-maker > assistant
up-striker1726
off-bearer1856
1856 K. E. R. Pickard Kidnapped & Ransomed (ed. 3) ii. 35 When Peter was about nine years old, he too was employed in the brick-yard, as off-bearer.
1884 C. T. Davis Pract. Treat. Manuf. Bricks (1889) 132 A moulding gang consists of one laborer called the ‘moulder’, and one able-bodied man called the ‘wheeler’, and one boy called the ‘off-bearer’.
1887 A. A. Brown Lumbering on Cumberland 47 Caleb occupied the position of honor, and acted as ‘sawyer’. Abe was ‘setter’, and Eph was ‘off-bearer’.
1894 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 8 Mar. An off-bearer at —'s saw mill..was horribly mangled to-day.
1939 D. Hartley Made in Eng. v. 170 In one shed there seemed to be about six workers, and their names indicated their share of the job; ‘moulder’, ‘temperer’, ‘off-bearer’, [etc.].
1941 Arkansas (Arkansas Work Projects Administration Writers' Project) 236 About four men operate one of these small mills, including the off-bearer and the sawyer.
1960 Economica 27 142 Table 2 shows the relationship between the average earnings of machine off-bearers..and two relatively skilled occupations.
1994 Sociol. Methodol. 24 App. D. 68 Machine Feeders and Offbearers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1856