▪ I. miner1
(ˈmaɪnə(r))
Forms: 3–4 mynur, 4–5 minour(e, myno(u)r, mynowre, 5 minere, mynere, -oure, Sc. myndoure, 5–7 myner, 7 minor, mioner, myoner, 5– miner.
[ME. mynur, minour, a. OF. minëor, minour (mod.F. mineur), f. miner to mine: see -or 2 b.]
1. a. One who excavates the ground, or makes subterranean passages; esp. one who undermines a fortress, etc.; now Mil. a soldier whose special duty is the laying of mines. Sappers and Miners: see sapper.
| c 1275 Luue Ron 123 in O.E. Misc. 97 Ne may no Mynur hire vnderwrote. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 179 R. had minoures, þat myned vndere þe walle. c 1400 Destr. Troy 4774 Mynours then mightely the moldes did serche, Ouertyrnet the toures, & the tore walles. c 1470 Henry Wallace ix. 1139 Mynouris sone thai gert perss throw the wall. 1530 Palsgr. 245/2 Myner under the grounde, pionnier. 1606 Arraign. late Traitors in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) III. 48 [Guy] Fawkes the minor, justly called The Devil of the Vault. 1645 Ld. Fairfax Let. to Lenthall conc. Sherborn Castle 15 Aug. 4 The Myoners having fully wrought the Mine through the Castle wall. 1692 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 470 A miner and another person were taken fixing a train. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 38 ¶13 A great Body of Miners are summoned to the Camp to countermine the Works of the Enemy. 1711 Milit. & Sea Dict. i, Miners, Men appointed to work in the Mines, being a particular Company of themselves, commanded by a Captain of the Regiment of Fuzileers. 1816 Byron Ch. Har. iii. lviii, Here Ehrenbreitstein, with her shatter'd wall, Black with the miner's blast. |
b. transf. and
fig.| c 1614 Cornwallis in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 158 Jesuites, and Priests, the only moths, and miners of this common⁓wealth. 1742 Young Nt. Th. i. 352 Death's subtle seed within, (Sly, treacherous miner!) working in the dark, Smil'd at thy well-concerted scheme. 1784 Cowper Task i. 273 Hillocks green and soft, Raised by the mole, the miner of the soil. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 215 Sometimes when waiting quietly on a bank, you may see the miner [a rabbit] at work. 1897 W. Anderson Surg. Treat. Lupus 2 Rarely attempting to deal with the apparently healthy tissues which conceal the bacillary sappers and miners who are at work in advance of the main body. |
† c. Phr.
to fix or attach the miner,
to fix miners.
| 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1123/3 We fixed the Miner to the Ravelin, and filled up the Ditch. 1684 Ibid. No. 1951/3 The Imperialists had on the 20th attached their Miners to the Wall of the Upper Town in four several places. 1685 Travestin Siege Newheusel 23 This night we attempted to fix our Miners. 1685 Lond. Gaz. 17–20 Aug. 1 We made a lodgment in the Ditch in order to fix the Miner. 1704 Collect. Voy. (Churchill) III. 737/2 Being afterwards advanc'd to the Ditch, they fix'd their Miners. 1834 Sir W. Napier Penins. War xiii. iii. (1846) IV. 43 The besiegers..attached the miner to the scarp. |
2. One who works in a mine; one engaged in extracting minerals from the earth.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 10733 Þys mynur soȝte stones vndyr þe molde, Þat men make of, syluer and golde. 13.. Metr. Hom. (Vernon MS.) in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LVII. 287 A Mynour wonede in a Citee, Mynours þei makeþ in hulles holes As men don þat secheþ coles. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 221 Masons and mynours and many other craftes. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1532 Mynors of marbull ston & mony oþer thinges. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. i. xiv. 38 Mynours that coude ful craftly digge vndre the erthe. 1555 Eden Decades 22 The myners dygged the superficiall or vppermost parte of the earthe of the mynes. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 525 This (he saith) may be tryed in Laborers, Mioners, Diggers, and Husbandmen. 1625 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. ix. (1635) 153 Minors and such as digg deepe into the earth. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 78 If we examine the complexion of most miners, we shall be very well able to form a judgment of the unwholsomness of the place where they are confined. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Miner, Penn. The workman who cuts the coal, as distinguished from the laborer who loads the wagons, etc. 1901 Census Schedule, Instruct., Miners..should always state the kind of mine in which they work—as, Lead-miner. |
3. A name applied to various burrowing insects or larvæ. (See also
leaf-miner.)
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xvii. (1818) II. 81 Another species of ant, which I shall call the miners (Formica cunicularia, L.). 1890 E. A. Ormerod Injur. Insects (ed. 2) 49 [Celery and Parsnip Fly]. The ‘miner’ maggots go through their changes from the egg to the perfect fly so rapidly [etc.]. |
4. A kind of plough.
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 12 The Miner is another plough, which is used for opening ground to a great depth; it is made very strong, but with a share only. Ibid. 385 The land may be opened up as deep as possible by the common plough, having others, such as that which has been termed a miner, following in the bottom of the furrow. 1845 Encycl. Metrop. XIV. 232/1 The miner is very similar to the binot. |
5. A vessel used for the purpose of laying submarine mines.
| 1898 Daily News 8 June 2/7 In a sudden squall, the miner he was on collided with the steam launch Volta. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
miner-like adj.;
miner ant, see sense 3;
miner's friend, a name for the Davy safety-lamp;
miner's inch = inch 1 d;
miner's right, in Australia and New Zealand, a licence to dig for gold.
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xvii. (1818) II. 84 The negro and *miner ants. |
| 1842 Francis Dict. Arts, etc., *Miner's Friend, or Miner's Lamp. |
| 1867 J. A. Phillips Min. & Metall. Gold & Silver 152 note, The *miner's inch of water, in California, is the quantity which will flow through an opening one inch square under a mean head of six inches. |
| 1880 S. Harper in Pioneer Mining Co., Debenture Prospectus 3 If the above property be carried out in a *miner⁓like manner..it will not fail to become one of the best Mines. |
| 1855 in Occasional Papers Univ. Sydney Austral. Lang. Res. Centre (1966) No. 9. 15 It shall be lawful for the Governor..to cause documents to be issued each of which shall be called ‘The *Miner's Right’ and shall be granted to any person applying for the same upon payment of a fee of one pound. 1858 in Ibid. 16 It is not generally known,..that..any one interested in the workings at the gold-fields should hold a Miner's Right which can be had at the Treasury. 1863 Rules & Regulations Otago Gold Fields 7 Every person residing on a Gold Field and engaged in mining for gold, shall take out a Miner's Right; such Miner's Right to be carried on the person, and produced for inspection when demanded. 1868 V. Pyke Province of Otago 41 The only qualification is the possession of a ‘Miners' Right’. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right i. (1899) 7, I am a real gold-digger..and the holder of a Miner's Right, a wonderful document, printed and written on parchment. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Feb. 189/2 Exhibits [in an Arrowtown museum, Central Otago, include]..a miner's right. 1959 Baker Drum 127 Miner's right, a licence to dig for gold granted to a miner, orig. in the 1850s. |
b. In names of diseases contracted by miners, as
miner's anæmia,
miner's-asthma,
miner's-consumption,
miner's disease,
miner's elbow,
miner's-lung,
miner's nystagmus,
miner's phthisis,
miner's-rot,
miner's sickness,
miner's-worm. (See
Syd. Soc. Lex.)
| 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases xxxvi. 557 In Europe it [i.e. ankylostomiasis] is sometimes known as ‘*miners' anæmia’. |
| 1855 J. R. Leifchild Cornwall Mines 285 There is a disease called the *miner's consumption. |
| 1879 *Miner's nystagmus [see nystagmus 2]. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. X. 152/2 Owing to the inadequate illumination in mines a large number of miners get a condition known as ‘miner's nystagmus’. 1962 H. C. Weston Sight, Light & Work (ed. 2) ix. 262 The occupational disease known as miner's nystagmus is so named on account of the ocular movements commonly associated with it. |
| 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 244 ‘Grinders' rot’, ‘*miners' rot’ and so forth. |
| 1903 Daily Chron. 21 Oct. 4/2 An Ayrshire medical man, who wrote to the Home Secretary asking whether his Department is doing anything to stop the disease known as ‘*miners' worm’. |
▪ II. † ˈminer2 Obs. [Anglicized form of minera. Cf. G. miner, MDu. minere, mineer.] = minera. Also, a mineral impregnation.
| 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. vi. xxvii. in Ashm. (1652) 167 And make them then together to be Dysponsat By Congelacyon into a myner metallyne. 1562 Turner Baths 1 Then seynge that there can not be found any other miner or mater to be the chefe ruler in these baths. Ibid. (1568) 3 Two thinges whereby the miner or metall, or vayne of a bath may be knowne. |
▪ III. miner variant of
mina n.2