job

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /dʒɒb/, US /dʒɑːb/^[1]

Etymology

The origin of job is uncertain.^[2][3][4] It first appears in the phrase “jobbe of worke” (1557),^[5][2] and Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged suggest it is a variant of gobbe (“lump, mass”) (see gob), perhaps through a sense “cartload”.^[2][5][6] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins point to an obsolete job “piece, lump” (about 1400) and “cartload” (1560), itself of unknown origin.^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of work, a task, in the phrase jobbe of worke (1557),^[5][2] which suggests that job and work did not then mean the same thing.^[8]

Semantic evolution

By the early 17th century job alone meant a piece of work (before 1627, in Middleton),^[5][9] and by 1660, in Pepys, a piece of work done for pay or profit.^[5][9][2] Johnson defined it as “a low mean lucrative busy affair” and “petty, piddling work”.^[2][10] The verb meant “to buy and sell as a broker” in the 1660s, “to deal in stocks” from 1721 and “to turn public service to private advantage” from 1732;^[2] a public trust turned to private gain was itself a job from 1667.^[9] The general sense “an affair, a state of things” (a good job) is colloquial from about 1700,^[2][9] and thieves' slang used job for a planned crime from 1722.^[9][2] The sense “paid position, employment” was first American, from 1858.^[5][2][7] Printers called miscellaneous small work, such as posters and handbills, job work from 1795.^[2][9] Job lot (1832) keeps the obsolete sense “cartload, lump”.^[2][7] In computing a job is a task run by a computer (1964),^[9] and nose job and the like are from 1963.^[9] Jobsworth, from “more than my job's worth”, was popularized by the BBC series That's Life.^[8]

Timeline

• 1557 – jobbe of worke, a piece of work.^[5]
• before 1627 – job alone (Middleton).^[5][9]
• 1660 – work done for pay (Pepys).^[5][9]
• 1667 – a public trust turned to private gain.^[9]
• 1694 – anything one has to do; verb, to do piecework.^[5][9]
• c. 1700 – a state of things.^[2][9]
• 1722 – a planned crime.^[9][2]
• 1795 – printers' job work.^[2][9]
• 1858 – a paid position (American).^[5][2]
• 1964 – a computer task.^[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A regular paid position; employment.
2. A piece of work; a task.
3. A duty or responsibility: it's your job to lock up.
4. (informal) A difficult task: I had a job finding it.
5. A state of affairs: it's a good job you came.
6. (informal) A crime, especially a robbery.
7. (computing) A task run by a computer.

Verb

1. To do odd jobs or piecework.
2. To buy (goods) from makers and sell them to retailers; to act as a middleman.
3. To subcontract (work).
4. To use (public office) dishonestly for private profit.

Related words

• gob
• jobber
• jobbery

Usage notes

A separate verb job “to prod, stab” (late 15th century), now archaic, is apparently imitative, like jab, which is a variant of it.^{[9][11][12][3]} The name Job, pronounced /dʒəʊb/, is from Hebrew Iyyōbh through Greek and Latin.^[1][6][3]

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press