lander

Etymology

It is formed from English land + -er,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} as an agent noun from the verb.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In mining, the man who lands the kibble, the bucket, at the mouth of the shaft: 1847, in Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a miners' term,^[2][4] and Merriam-Webster also records it for a quarry worker who guides blocks of stone as they are hoisted.^[5] The general sense, a person who lands or goes ashore, is recorded from 1859, in Tennyson's Enid.^[2][3] The space age gave it its main modern meaning, a spacecraft built to land on the moon or a planet, recorded from 1961;^[2][3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1960–65 and compares orbiter.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 1847 – in mining, the man who lands the kibble at the mouth of the shaft.^[2]
• 1859 – a person who lands or goes ashore.^[2][3]
• 1961 – a spacecraft designed to land on a planet or the moon.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spacecraft designed to land on the surface of a planet, moon or other body: The lander touched down near the rim of the crater.^[7][5][2][6]
2. A person or thing that lands, especially one who goes ashore.^[5][2]
3. In mining, a worker at the shaft who unloads rock from the bucket or cage.^[5][2][4]
4. A quarry worker who guides and steadies blocks of stone as they are hoisted.^[5]

Related words

• land
• landing

Usage notes

Wright's English Dialect Dictionary records a dialect noun lander, a heavy blow, from Ireland, Cumberland and Oxfordshire, which it compares with lounder, and a Yorkshire verb lander, to idle or leave off work.^[8]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c 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 f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ 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)