colliery

Etymology

It is formed from English collier + -y,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the suffix being the one also seen in -ery; the OED compares the form coalery.^[2] Collier is Middle English colier, from col, coal, apparently on the model of words from French with the suffix -ier.^[2] Johnson derived it simply from collier.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place where coal is dug, a coal mine: Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the 1989 edition of the OED date this to 1635,^[3][8] Etymonline to the 1630s^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1625–35.^[9] The first quotation in the current OED is from 1648, in John Rushworth's Historical Collections.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the mine itself, the word was used in the late 17th and the 18th century for the coal trade (1673), the working of a coal mine (1708) and the ships that carried coal, or one such ship (1722–64); all three senses are now obsolete.^[2][10] Johnson (1755) gave both "the place where coals are dug" and "the coal trade".^[7] Modern dictionaries extend the sense to the mine together with its buildings and plant,^[3][11][6] and Collins labels the word chiefly British.^[12]

Timeline

• 1635 – a coal mine.^[3][8] The current OED's first quotation is from 1648.^[2]
• 1673 – the coal trade (obsolete).^[2][10]
• 1708 – the working of a coal mine (obsolete).^[2][10]
• 1722 – the ships employed in the coal trade, or one such ship (obsolete by 1764).^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A coal mine, together with the buildings and equipment that belong to it: Half the village worked at the colliery.^{[3][11][12][6]}
2. (obsolete, 1673) The coal trade.^[2][7]
3. (obsolete, 1722–1764) The ships carrying coal; a collier.^[2][6]

Related words

• collier
• coal
• coalery

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins