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notaphily (1970) the collecting of paper currency as a hobby

deltiologist (1959) a collector of picture postcards

cartophily (1936) the hobby of collecting cigarette cards

arctophile (1970s) a person who loves or collects teddy bears

cruciverbalist (US slang 1970s) a crossword puzzle addict

bowerbird (Australian slang) a person who collects an astonishing array of sometimes useless objects

WORD JOURNEYS

hazard (13C) a game of dice

forfeit (13C from Latin via Old French) ‘done beyond the bounds of’ the law, a crime

depart (13C from Latin via Old French) to divide into parts, distribute

MUSH FAKERS AND

APPLESQUIRES

The world of work

He that hopes to thrive must rise at five;

he that has thriven, may lie till seven;

but he that will never thrive

may lie till eleven

(1640)

Even in these days of welfare, or national handbag as Polari slang (see page 157) evocatively has it, most of us have to work at something to make ends meet. However specialized or odd our occupation may be, we can take comfort from the fact that in harsher times, jobs came in all shapes and sizes:

legger (Yorkshire) a man employed to move canal boats through tunnels by walking on the roof or sides of the tunnel

fottie (Scottish) a female wool-gatherer

murenger (Cheshire 1706) an officer appointed to keep the walls of a city in repair

sewer (Tudor–Stuart) an attendant at a meal who superintended the seating of the guests and the tasting and the serving of the dishes

shore-man (Cockney) one who searches sewers for rats

pure-finder (c.1850) a street collector of dogs’ dung

applesquire (late 16C) the male servant of a prostitute

gong-farmer (1596) a person who cleaned out privies at night and sold the waste as a fertilizer

screever (1851) a professional writer of begging letters

glutman (1796) a temporary customs officer (hired because of his ability to be numerate)

lodger-remover (underworld slang 1889) a seller of fine-toothed haircombs

mush faker (1821) an umbrella repairer (‘mushroom-faker’)

resurrection doctor (1800s) a doctor who buys corpses which are stolen from graves, or has people murdered and delivered to him

whiffler (1539) an officer armed with a weapon who clears the way for a procession

COLOUR CODED

Nowadays many jobs can be seen as either white or blue collar, where the former are those who wear a suit and work in offices, and the latter those getting their hands dirty in a boilersuit. The designation white came first, in 1921, and blue followed in 1950. Since then imaginative business writers and others have added yet more categories:

pink (1975) secretaries and other clerical staff

steel (1980) robots

grey (1981) skilled technicians; employees whose job descriptions combine some white- and some blue-collar duties

green (1984) environmentalists

gold (1985) professionals or those with in-demand skills; employees over 55

black (1998) miners (especially coal miners) and oil workers

scarlet (2000) female pornographic shop operators

ELBOW GREASE

But whatever your job, whether it be typing at a word-processor or hauling coal, there is one element in common: at some point you have to get stuck in to doing the work:

swallow the frog to tackle the hardest task possible

knife-and-fork it to deal with it bit by bit

antisocordist (1680) an opponent of laziness or idiocy

fluttergrub (Sussex) a man who takes a delight in working about in the dirt, and getting into every possible mess

work for Jesus (US industrial relations) to put in extra work without asking for extra pay

JOBSWORTH

Of course there are always those who manage to slow productivity in some way or other. As the Australians say, they’re as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike:

chair plug (2006) someone who sits in a meeting but contributes nothing

boondoggle (1935) to carry out valueless or extremely trivial work in order to convey the impression that one is busy

to be on the shockell (Warwickshire) to neglect one’s work through beer

headless nail (1950s)