worker

What it means

1. One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor.

   Near-synonym: employee

   5 more examples

   Fret not thy ſelfe becauſe of euill doers, neither bee thou enuious againſt the workers of iniquitie.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 37:1

   Writer Ta Chen, in a statistical study of industrial labor in China in 1933, recorded that 66.6 percent of the total number of workers in the four main industrial regions of Kwangtung were women. In Shun-te, 81.2 percent of the labor force were women.

   1986, Janice G. Raymond, A Passion for Friends: Toward a Philosophy of Female Affection, Boston: Beacon Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 124

   Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese […] began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated. The poisoning was irreversible, and soon ended in psychosis and death. Nowadays workers are exposed to far lower doses and manganism is rare.

   2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884, archived from the original on 07 Jul 2014

   Although the radiation levels identified are high, a threat to human health is very unlikely because apart from workers at the site, no-one goes there.

   2017 February 2, Jeff Farrell, “Fukushima nuclear disaster: Lethal levels of radiation detected in leak seven years after plant meltdown in Japan”, in The Independent, London, archived from the original on 10 Apr 2019

   That would allow employers to keep some tip money for themselves, as long as each worker made at least the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

   2018 March 24, Lydia DePillis, “Few noticed, but Congress just banned restaurants from skimming tips”, in CNN, archived from the original on 09 Dec 2024

   Synonyms: employee

2. A nonreproductive social insect, such as ant, bee, termite, or wasp.
   1. rareA female ant, bee, termite or wasp.

In a sentence

Near-synonym: employee

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*werǵ-
2. Proto-Indo-European*wr̥ǵyéti
3. Proto-Germanic*wurkijaną
4. Proto-West Germanic*wurkijan
5. Proto-Indo-European*werǵ-
6. Proto-Indo-European*wérǵom
7. Proto-Germanic*werką
8. Proto-Germanic*wirkijaną
9. Proto-West Germanic*wirkijan
10. Old Englishwyrċan
11. Middle Englishworchen
12. Middle Englishwerkere, worchere
13. Englishworker

Inherited from Middle English worchere, werkere, equivalent to work + -er. Displaced the older term wright, from Old English wyrhta.