▪ I. trucker1
(ˈtrʌkə(r))
[f. truck v.1 and n.1 + -er1. Cf. F. troqueur (17th c.).]
1. One who trucks or barters; a barterer, bargainer; Sc. an itinerant dealer, a pedlar; † also, as a term of reproach: a haggler, huckster, trafficker (obs.).
| 1598 Florio, Barattiere,..a trucker, a marter, an exchanger. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 239 This silly foole was a kinde of trucker of commodities. 1632 Massinger City Madam iii. i, I know them—swaggering, suburbian roarers, Sixpenny truckers. 1660 J. Lloyd Prim. Episc. 31 The sacrilegious truckers, which would have the reverend Clergy live upon their leavings and scraps. c 1790 in Ramsay Scot. in 18th C. (1888) II. xi. 323 note, Every year there came a set of troquers or trockhers (barterers, Fr. troquer) from Ireland with horse-loads of linen, which they bartered for the miner's old clothes. 1802 J. Baillie Ethwald ii. i. iii, Come on, base trokers of your country's blood. 1816 Scott Antiq. iii, Brokers and trokers, those miscellaneous dealers in things rare and curious. |
2. U.S. One who grows ‘truck’ or garden produce for market; a truck-gardener or truck-farmer.
| 1868 Norfolk (Virginia) Jrnl., The truckers in this neighborhood. 1882 Philad. Even. Star 2 May, Norfolk truckers are picking their strawberries. 1890 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 10 Apr. 2/4 Southern vegetables are looking very well and the truckers are hopeful. |
3. attrib., as trucker-fashion; also † trucker-cloth, ? cloth for trucking; cf. trucking-cloth.
| 1536 Somerset Medieval Wills (Som. Rec. Soc.) 34 To my brother Edward a Trucker cloth. 1543 Ibid. 75 To John Burges my prentice, a trucker cloth. 1881 A. Watt in Mod. Scott. Poets III. 137 In true troker fashion, she ca'd at ilk dwellin'. |
▪ II. ˈtrucker2
[f. truck n.2 + -er1.]
1. A labourer who uses a truck.
| 1853 Dickens Down with Tide in Househ. Words 5 Feb. 484/2 The Truckers..whose business it was to land more considerable parcels of goods than the Lumpers could manage. 1878 F. S. Williams Midl. Railw. 640 No sooner is the train marshalled in its dock..than the ‘truckers’ bring forward the goods to be loaded. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 30 May 5/3 Two wagonettes, in each of which thirty dock labourers had been driven from the East End at the expense of a lucky ‘trucker’. |
2. A (long-distance) lorry-driver. orig. and chiefly U.S.
| 1961 Amer. Speech XXXVI. 273 A fast-driving trucker. 1963 Times 2 Feb. 9/6 ‘Truckers, the real night drivers, are a race apart and 99 per cent honest,’ said Taffy. 1966 B. H. Deal Fancy's Knell (1967) vi. 84 There was the barbecue and good coffee. Truckers often stopped here. 1971 Maclean's Mag. Sept. 72/3 Most truckers..name their rigs after their girl friends. 1978 S. Brill Teamsters i. 14 The special nature of their work gives these truckers and warehousemen a stranglehold on the nation's economic life. 1984 Gainesville (Florida) Sun 30 Mar. 11a/1 The chase started when truckers on I-75 radioed troopers about a late-model Chevrolet station wagon that was weaving on the highway. 1984 More (Auckland) May 81/3 And then there are some hardcore longterm truckers who have seen several seasons come and go. |