collier
(ˈkɒlɪə(r))
Forms: 4 kolier, cholier, 5 colyȝere, colȝer(e, coliare, coler, 5–6 colyer, colier, (coilȝear), 6 colyar, coliar, 6–7 colliar, collyer, (8 coallier), 6– collier.
[ME. colier, colyer, etc., f. col, coal, app. after words from Fr. in -ier, q.v. The Sc. coilȝear, and other ME. spellings, imply that the o was then long; collier with short o, appears to be later: cf. colly a. and v.]
I. One whose occupation or trade is to procure or supply coal (formerly charcoal); one engaged in the coal trade.
† 1. A maker of wood charcoal (who also was often the bringer of it to market). Obs.
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 2520 Choliers þat cayreden col come þere bi side. Ibid. 2523 Þe kolieres bi komsed to karpe kenely i fere. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 87 Colyer [v.r. colyȝere, coler], carbonarius. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 321 Then the Coilȝear..Went to the Charcoill in hy, To mak his Chauffray reddy. 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (1844) 328 Item to the colyer for makyng of coleys ij.s. 1550 Crowley Epigr. 493 When none but pore Colyars dyd wyth coles mell. 1573 Art of Limning 7 Take Hartes horne, and burne it to cole on a Coliars harth. 1608 T. Ball in Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1887) I. 130 To be at bristow with a reffiner and a hammer man and 8 or 10 colliers. |
† 2. One who carries coal (
orig. charcoal, later also pit-coal) for sale.
Obs.| 1479 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 425 All maner of colyers that bryngeth coleys to towne. 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 86 And where as the colyers be founde false that they may be punessed and theyr sackes brent. 1576 Gascoigne Steele Gl. (Arb.) 79 When colliers put no dust into their sacks. 1661–2 Pepys Diary 8 Feb., All the day with the colliers removing the coles out of the old cole hole into the new one. 1719 D'Urfey Pills IV. 198 A Collier with his Cart, that Coals was used to carry. |
† b. A coal-dealer or owner.
Obs.| 1625 Bacon Ess. Riches (Arb.) 235, I knew a Nobleman..A Great Timber Man, A Great Colliar, A Great Corne-Master, A Great Lead-Man. |
† 3. Often used with allusion to the dirtiness of the trade in coal, or the evil repute of the collier for cheating:
cf. Greene's
Coosnage of Colliers (1591).
Obs.| c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. (1843) 11 Smoggy colyers, and stynkynge gonge fermers. 1552 Bale Apol. 93 (R.) As the sayinge is, lyke wyl to lyke, as the deuyl fyndeth out the colyer. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 130 What man, tis not for grauity to play at cherrie-pit with sathan. Hang him foul Colliar. 1622 Gataker Sp. Watch 67 (T,) A man shall hardly come with fair apparell amongst colliers, but he shall carry some of their soil away from them. 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 350 He could transform himself in Colour As like the Devil as a Collier. 1732 in Fuller Gnomol. (Hazl. Eng. Prov. 1869) Like a collier's sack, bad without, but worse within. |
4. One who works in a coal-mine; a coal-miner.
| 1594 Newcastle Munic. Acc. (1849) 33 Paide for letting fourthe coliers at Pilgrim streete gate..earlie in the morninge to worke, 2s. per pece each on. 1665 D. Dudley Mettallum Martis (1854) 8 Colliers have gotten coles again in those same Pits. 1741–3 Wesley Jrnl. (1749) 95, I went to Southbiddick, a village of colliers, seven miles south-east of Newcastle. 1799 Scotl. Descr. 198 Villages..inhabited by..coalliers and lime-burners. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability Wks. (Bohn) 1881 II. 37 They are..not good in jewelry or mosaics, but the best iron-masters, colliers, wool-combers, and tanners, in Europe. 1876 Fawcett Pol. Econ. ii. iv. 147 A collier earns more wages than a carpenter. |
II. transf. 5. A ship engaged in the carriage of coal. Earlier
collier-ship. Also
attrib.| 1625 Sir J. Glanville Voy. Cadiz (1883) 11 With all the Colliers or New-Castell shipps in the ffleete. 1665 Pepys Diary 3 Jan., The Dutch have taken some of our colliers to the North. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) III. lxxxi. 257 The ship was no other than a light collier. 1847–8 H. Miller First Impr. xii. (1857) 202 The coal which loads a single large collier would, when it existed as wood, have built many large colliers. |
b. One of the crew of such a vessel.
| 1727 Swift Petition of Colliers, etc., So considerable a branch of the coasting trade, as that of the colliers. 1840 Marryat Poor Jack xxv, I'm an old collier. |
6. The swift (
Cypselus apus).
dial.| 1796 W. Marshall E. Yorksh. Gloss. Collier, hirundo apus, the black swallow, or swift. 1855 in Whitby Gloss. |
7. A species of Aphis; also
collier-aphis,
collier-fly.
| 1744–50 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman IV. i. 75 It's called the collier-fly, because it turns black. 1784 Young Ann. Agric. II. 51 Collier, an insect, ‘the black dolphin’. |
III. attrib. and
Comb.: as
collier-brig,
collier-ship;
collier-built adj.;
collier-man,
-master, the captain of a coal-ship;
collier's faith [
med. Lat. fides carbonarii,
Ger. köhlerglaube], uninquiring or unreasoning assent to the prevalent religious tenets; blind faith;
collier's lung,
phthisis, a fibroid phthisis common with coal-workers, characterized by the deposit of carbon in a finely granular condition in the tissue of the lungs;
collier-woman, a woman that works in a coal-mine.
| 1863 Kingsley Water-bab. v. 211 The butties that knock about the poor *collier-boys. |
| 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. i, Fog creeping into the caboozes of *collier-brigs. |
| 1878 E. J. Trelawny Shelley, etc. (1887) 198 She was a *collier-built tub of 120 tons. |
| 1581 Hanmer Jesuits Banner K ij b, Not hanging with the *colliers fayth upon the sleeueless coate of the Romish Church. [1603 Chettle Eng. Mourn. Garment D iiij b, Onely of the faith that the Colliar profest, which was euer one with the most. [See the story 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. ii. vi.] 1680 Observ. ‘Curse Ye Meroz’ 6 [He] proceeds to talk of Faith..but possibly 'tis the Colliers Faith he means all this while. |
| 1881 Daily Tel. 28 Jan., The *collierman's chart is the coast. |
| 1722 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 44 The masters of coal-ships, who they call *collier-masters. |
| 1871 Sir T. Watson Princ. Physic (ed. 5) II. 251 [The disease] has been sometimes called spurious melanosis sometimes *Collier's Phthisis. |
| 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 292 To each Newcastle-ship or *Colliarship serving in his Highness his affairs, etc. |
| 1798 Southey Eng. Eclog. ii, Blear-eyed Moll The *collier woman. |