digger

Etymology

It is formed from English dig + -er, the agent noun of the verb.^[2][3][4][5] The Middle English noun digger, from diggen, is recorded in the “Promptorium Parvulorum”, where it glosses Latin fossor.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who digs or turns up the earth with a spade or other tool: about 1400, in the Promptorium Parvulorum;^[2] the MED dates this manuscript to 1440,^[6] and Etymonline puts the word in the mid-15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense the word was specialized to a miner, especially one working shallow deposits (1531).^[2] From 1853, in the Australian gold rush, it meant one who digs for gold.^[2][3] In 1649 Diggers became the name of a radical group that split from the Levellers and began to dig and plant common land, following communistic ideas about property.^[2][3][7] From 1837, in Washington Irving, it was also applied to various Native American peoples of the West who lived largely on roots dug from the ground;^[2][3] Dictionary.com notes that white settlers used it especially of the Ute, Paiute and Western Shoshone, and that it implied they were primitive.^[8] An instrument for digging is a digger from 1686,^[2] or the 1680s in Etymonline,^[3] and the digger wasps from 1844.^[2]

In the First World War digger became the word for an Australian or New Zealand soldier, first as a friendly form of address (1915) and then for the soldier himself (1917).^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English derives it from the earlier sense "miner", strengthened by the digging of trenches,^[9] and the Australian National Dictionary Centre explains it the same way, dating the soldier sense to 1916.^[10] In Australia it is still a term of address among men, meaning mate.^[11][12] In criminal slang a digger was a spur from the mid-18th century,^[13][2] and in the 20th century a pickpocket, a prison or solitary cell, and, short for gold digger, a woman who takes gifts from a richer lover.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – one who digs the ground.^[2][6]
• 1531 – a miner.^[2]
• 1649 – Diggers, a group of radical Levellers.^[2][3]
• 1686 – a tool or machine for digging.^[2]
• 1753 – criminal slang, a spur.^[13]
• 1837 – a member of certain Native American peoples who lived on dug roots.^[2][3]
• 1844 – a digger wasp.^[2]
• 1853 – a gold digger in a gold field.^[2][3]
• 1911 – an archaeological excavator, in T. E. Lawrence.^[2]
• 1915 – a form of address among Australian and New Zealand soldiers.^[2]
• 1917 – an Australian or New Zealand soldier.^[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, animal or machine that digs, especially a mechanical excavator: The digger cleared the site in a day.^[14][12][5]
2. A miner, especially one who digs for gold.^[14][5][2]
3. A tool, or the part of a machine, used for digging: a potato digger.^[14][5][2]
4. (informal) An Australian or New Zealand soldier, especially of the First World War; also an Australian or New Zealander in general.^[14][11][2]
5. (Australian and New Zealand, informal) A friendly form of address among men; mate.^[11][7][12]
6. (history) A member of a 17th-century radical Puritan group, an offshoot of the Levellers, who held land in common and began cultivating common land.^[7][4][2]
7. A digger wasp.^[2][5]

Word family

• digger pine
• digger wasp

Related words

• dig
• gold digger

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c 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)
7. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Australian National Dictionary Centre, Meanings and Origins of Australian Words and Idioms, https://andc.anu.edu.au
11. ^ a b c The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
12. ^ a b c Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins