1 May
Etymologically presents
Words for Labour Day
International Workers’ Day: the words for work and pay, the vocabulary of the strike and the picket line, and the weekend that a century of campaigns won.
The words of work
Toil, pay and the people in charge.
- c. 1300 labour from Latin labor “toil, hardship” Exertion, and the pain that comes with it. Labour as childbirth dates from the 1590s; labour as the workers themselves, as a class, from the 19th century. Read the full etymology →
- Old English work from weorc From the same ancient root as Greek érgon, “work”, which gives energy, ergonomics and organ, an instrument for doing work. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1200 travail from Old French travailler Toil, from a verb thought to mean “to torture”, after the tripalium, a Roman instrument of three stakes. Travel is the same word: the toil of a journey. Read the full etymology →
- 1550s job from origin uncertain First a “job of work”, a single piece of work done for pay, perhaps from gob, “a lump, a mouthful”. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1300 wage from Old North French wage “pledge” A pledge, then payment for service. It is a cousin of wed and of gage, as in engage: all three are about promises. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1300 salary from Latin salarium Related to sal, “salt”. The story that Roman soldiers were paid in salt is popular, but no ancient source says so. Read the full etymology →
- early 15th century employ from Latin implicare “enfold” To involve someone in something: through French employer from the same Latin verb as imply and implicate. Read the full etymology →
- 1640s boss from Dutch baas “master” American English took it from the Dutch of New York, partly because master sounded too much like slavery. Read the full etymology →
- 1923 robot from Czech robota “forced labour” From Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. (1920), about manufactured workers; his brother Josef suggested the word. Robota was the unpaid labour serfs owed their lord. Read the full etymology →
The workers’ movement
Strikes, pickets and solidarity, and the day itself.
- Middle English May Day from the first of May An old spring festival. Since 1890 it has also been International Workers’ Day, in memory of the Chicago strikers of 1886 who campaigned for an eight-hour day. Read the full etymology →
- 1768 strike from sailors striking sail In 1768 London sailors stopped ships leaving port by striking, lowering, their sails. To strike work, and then simply to strike, followed. Read the full etymology →
- early 15th century union from Latin unio “oneness” From unus, “one”. Trade unions, combinations of workers in one trade, are named from the 1830s. Read the full etymology →
- 1841 solidarity from French solidarité From solidaire, a legal term for people jointly liable for a debt, each answerable for the whole: from Latin solidus, “whole, solid”. Read the full etymology →
- 1690s picket from French piquet “pointed stake” A stake, then a small detachment of soldiers on guard, then, from 1867, strikers posted outside a workplace. Read the full etymology →
- 1880 boycott from Captain Charles Boycott The land agent in County Mayo whom tenants, urged on by the Irish Land League, refused to work for, serve or speak to. Read the full etymology →
- 1910 sabotage from French saboter To bungle, to clatter about in sabots, wooden shoes. The tale of workers throwing their clogs into the machines came later. Read the full etymology →
- 1650s proletarian from Latin proletarius A Roman citizen of the lowest class, who served the state only by having children, proles. Read the full etymology →
Clocking off
And when the shift is over: the words for time of our own.
- No. 001 weekend In northern England in the 1870s, the holiday from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning.
- No. 002 holiday Old English hāligdæg, a holy day: religious feast days were once the only days off.
- No. 003 vacation Latin vacatio, “freedom, exemption”, from vacare, “to be empty, free”.
- No. 004 leisure Old French leisir, “to be permitted”, from Latin licere, as in licence: time you are allowed to call your own.
- No. 005 siesta Spanish, from Latin sexta hora, “the sixth hour” after dawn: midday, when it is too hot to work.
- No. 006 sabbatical From the sabbath year of rest in the Bible, every seventh year; for university teachers, from the 1880s.
- No. 007 retire French retirer, “to draw back”: to withdraw, and from the 1640s to leave work for good.
- No. 008 mayday Nothing to do with 1 May: the 1923 radio distress call comes from French m’aider, “help me”.