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navvy
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Spelling variants:navvie
n. — mostly historical, Transportation, Industry
a labourer, most often a railway worker.
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — According to OED-3, navvy is the shortened form of navigator, or one who labours on the construction of canals (see OED-3, s.v. "navvy" [1]). EDD defines navvy as the shortened form of navigation", or waterway, canal (see EDD, s.v. "navvy" [1]). The term is still in use in the UK, and has been preserved in Canada and many other former British colonies, including the US. In most cases, the meaning has generalized to denote any manual labourer, not just one who constructs canals. In Canada, the most common usage appears to be in reference to railway workers. Because the transnational railway was crucial to deterring the US from moving its border north and keeping east and west together, the term can be seen as culturally significant.
As Chart 1 shows, the term is widespread in many English-speaking countries, and least common in the US.
See also COD-2, s.v. "navvy", which is marked "Brit. & Cdn".
As Chart 1 shows, the term is widespread in many English-speaking countries, and least common in the US.
See also COD-2, s.v. "navvy", which is marked "Brit. & Cdn".
Quotations
1849
Unhappily on Saturday night last, a strolling Navvy at Gardiff [sic], happening to be an Irishman, murdered a Welshman under circumstances of great provocation, without being as yet apprehended, and this seems to have determined the countrymen of the latter to give free course to their long fermenting purpose of vengeance.
1859
They see that roads have been constructed, banks levelled, and ditches filled, but look upon it as so much "navvy" work, demanding no taste, and as little thought.
1886
These kidney pads ought to have a large sale in this province, as there are many miners, fishermen and railroad navvies afflicted with kidney disorders, to say nothing of its prevalence among other classes of our people.
1910
In the face of the fiendish shooting of a man by an Italian navvy for the mere offense of whistling it is easy to maintain that some Italians at least are not desirable citizens.
1935
This fashion of tying half a granny-knot
and bringing the uppermost portion down in
a sort of waterfall effect over the sternum has
been adopted from the habit of the British
navvy, who so disposes his conventional white
silk scarf in order to conceal the total absence
of a collar or tie beneath.
1960
Professional actors work like navvies, pouring out energy and invention; the memorization of lines, which impresses so many people as a great feat, is the least of their abilities.
1989
Crump's father, Thomas Crump, was a railway navvy who pounded spikes before the turn of the century near Medicine Hat.
2007
It's been noted that much of the work of clearing the land of first-growth forest and road building was done by Chinese navvies and prisoners from the city jail.
2015
Of course, building the transcontinental railroad also required the efforts of many people whose names are lost to us now. If you like, the little guys - the navvies - who swung the hammers and endured the blazing sun and the numbing cold, not to mention the risks to life and limb. And prominent among these were the imported Chinese labourers who did some of the most dangerous work, blasting through the mountains of British Columbia.
Mr. Lightfoot, to his credit, succinctly catches the navvy spirit: "A dollar a day and a place for my head/A drink to the living, a toast to the dead." It was indeed a different world.
References
- OED-3
- EDD
- COD-2
Images
