farmer | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

84 entries found.

also barnburner, by 1844, American English, a member of the more progressive faction of the New York Democratic Party (opposed to the Hunkers); the nickname is an allusion to the old story of the farmer who, to rid his barn of rats, burned it down.

bondman (n.)

mid-13c., "husband, husbandman," from Middle English bond "tenant farmer" (see bond (adj.)) + man (n.). Later, "man in bondage, male slave" (mid-14c.). Bondmaid is from 1520s as "slave-girl."

lag (n.)

in the mechanical sense "retardation of movement," 1855, from lag (v.). Also noted in Farmer and Henley ("Slang and Its Analogues") as American theatrical slang for "a wait," with an attestation from 1847. First record of lag time is from 1951.

splosh (v.)

1889 [in Farmer, who calls it "A New England variant of splash"], ultimately imitative. Perhaps influenced by splish-splosh "sound made by feet walking through wet" (1881). Related: Sploshed; sploshing.

goodwife (n.)

"a matron, mistress of a household," early 14c., from good (adj.) + wife (n.). As a term of civility applied to a married woman in humble life, it is a correlative of goodman. "Used like auntie, and mother, and gammer, in addressing or describing an inferior" [Farmer].

hairy (adj.)

early 14c., "covered with hair, rough, shaggy," from hair + -y (2). From 1848 in slang sense of "difficult," perhaps from the notion of "rugged, rough." Farmer calls this "Oxford slang." Related: Hairiness. For adjectives Old English had hæriht, hære "hairy;" hæren "of hair."

McIntosh

kind of red-skinned eating apples, 1874, named for John McIntosh (b. 1777), Ontario farmer who found them in 1796 while clearing woodland on his farm and began to cultivate them. The surname is Gaelic Mac an toisich "son of the chieftain."

fudge (n.2)

"nonsense, rubbish," (1791), earlier and more usually as a contemptuous interjection, "lies! nonsense!" Probably a natural extension from fudge (v.) "put together clumsily or dishonestly," q.v. But Farmer suggests provincial French fuche, feuche, "an exclamation of contempt from Low German futsch = begone."

Giles

masc. proper name, from Old French Gilles, from Latin Egidius, Aegidius (name of a famous 7c. Provençal hermit who was a popular saint in the Middle Ages), from Greek aigidion "kid" (see aegis). Often used in English as a typical name of a simple-minded farmer.

kulak (n.)

1877, "relatively well-to-do Russian farmer or trader," from Russian kulak (plural kulaki) "tight-fisted person," literally "fist," from Turki (Turkish) kul "hand." In the jargon of Soviet communism, applied in contempt and derision to those who worked for their own profit.

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