Etymologically
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collier

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈkɑliɚ/[1]
  • UK: /ˈkɒlɪə(ɹ)/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English colier, also colyer and collere,[2][3][4] formed from Middle English col (“coal, charcoal”) + -ere,[4][5][6] with the ending apparently modelled on words from French in -ier.[3][2] The MED suggests an unrecorded Old English *colere behind it.[2] col is from Old English col (“charcoal, live coal”),[7][8] from Proto-Germanic *kulą, the source also of Dutch kool, German Kohle and Old Norse kol.[9][7] The OED notes that the Scots form coilȝear and other Middle English spellings point to a long o, and that the short vowel of collier appears later.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A maker and seller of charcoal: the MED and Barnhart cite Roger Canny, collere in a London record of 1276,[2][4] and Etymonline notes that it is found as a surname from the late 13th century.[7] The OED's first quotation is from William of Palerne (before 1375).[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The first colliers burned wood into charcoal and usually brought it to market themselves, so the word came to mean a seller of charcoal and later of coal.[10][3] Etymonline notes that charcoal sellers were notorious for cheating their customers,[7] and in the early 16th century the word was used with allusion to the dirt of the coal trade or the bad name of colliers for fraud, as in Greene's pamphlet on the cozenage of colliers (1591).[3] Weekley explains that the original sense of charcoal-burner accounts for the surname in parts of England where there is no coal.[11] The sense "coal miner" is recorded from 1594, in the Newcastle accounts,[3] and Hoad dates it to the 16th century.[6] The word passed to a ship that carries coal in the 17th century (before 1661 in the OED, the 1620s in Etymonline), and to a member of its crew in 1716.[3][7] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: a digger of coals, a coal merchant, and a ship that carries coals.[12] In dialect the name was given to the swift, from 1796, and to a black aphid.[3][13][5] The English Dialect Dictionary records compounds such as collier's elbow, a misshapen elbow from a miner's habit of resting on it, in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Kent.[14]

Timeline

  • 1276 – collere, a charcoal maker and seller, in a London record.[2][4]
  • before 1375 – a maker of wood charcoal, in William of Palerne.[3][2]
  • 1479 – one who carries coal or charcoal for sale (obsolete by 1719).[3]
  • c. 1518 – with allusion to dirt or to cheating in the coal trade (obsolete).[3]
  • 1594 – a coal miner.[3]
  • before 1661 – a ship carrying coal (the 1620s in Etymonline).[3][7]
  • 1716 – a member of the crew of a collier.[3]
  • 1742 – a black aphid.[3]
  • 1796 – the swift, in East Yorkshire dialect.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly British) A coal miner: Her grandfather was a collier in the Rhondda.[15][5][3]
  2. A ship built to carry coal: The old collier unloaded at the wharf.[15][5][3]
  3. A member of the crew of such a ship.[15][3]
  4. A maker of charcoal by burning wood in a kiln.[5][13]
  5. A black aphid of beans.[5][13]
  6. (dialect) The swift.[5][13][3]
  7. (obsolete, 1479–1719) A dealer in coal or charcoal.[3][5][12]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins