Crossword clues for swamper
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1735, "one who lives in a swampy district," from swamp (n.). Meaning "workman who clears a lumber road through swamp or forest" is 1857, American English; meaning "all-purpose assistant in a restaurant or saloon" is from 1907.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context US English) A person who lives in a swampy area. (from 18th c.) 2 (context US English) A person who clears a road for lumberers in a forest or swamp. (from 19th c.) 3 Someone or something that swamps or overwhelms. (from 19th c.) 4 (context North America slang English) A truck driver's assistant; an assistant to a driver of horses, mules or bullocks. (from 19th c.) 5 (context Australia slang English) a person who travels by foot but has his belongings on a wagon. (from 19th c.) 6 (context US English) A handyman or general employee in a liquor saloon; a cook's assistant. (from 20th c.)
Wikipedia
The term swamper may refer to:
- A Swamp Yankee, resident of the swamps of southeastern New England, sometimes called Swampers.
- A member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, informally known as The Swampers.
- Swamper (occupational title): Somebody employed as an assistant to a truck driver or boatman, jobber in the petroleum industry, or a kitchen assistant to a chef. Original usage (mid-to-late 19th century) was an assistant in the logging industry who cleared roads.
- A person who stands by a hole while a worker is below in case he is swamped. e.g.:drainer
A swamper in occupational slang is an assistant worker, helper, maintenance person, or someone who performs odd jobs. The term has its origins circa 1857 in the southern United States to refer to a workman who cleared roads for a timber faller in a swamp, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It has since branched out into a variety of meanings, all of which denote some variation on an unskilled laborer working as an assistant to a skilled worker.
Usage examples of "swamper".
Sam was, in the opinion of the swamper, Val never learned, for at that moment Ricky burst from between two bushes.
He looked about him as if he expected the swamper to materialize out of thin air.
Val knew that the swamper was ready and waiting to take advantage of any diversion he might make.
Sam had started for the house, carrying Jeems as if the long-legged swamper was the same age and size as his own small son.
It was as if Val were looking down upon a younger and less confident edition of the swamper he had known.
Then he saw, at its bottom, a small, lifeless form: the carcass of a swamper, desiccated and curled into a fetal position, mummified within tiny, hairlike tendrils growing from the bottom of the plant.
She stood perfectly still and watched as the swamper came closer to a ball plant she had been trying to avoid.
Wendy waited, wanting to see what would happen if the ball plant would somehow grab the swamper, when a shadow flitted across the ground.
Breathless, she watched the swoop soar away, the dead swamper clutched beneath it, for the blackwoods a couple of miles from camp.
Handmade gloves, stitched together from swamper hide, lined with creek cat fur.
The lank swamper cursed as he strode beneath a grove of cypress trees.
He had not taken on the character of a swamper, as the beady-eyed gangster had thought he would.
Old Candy, the swamper, came in and went to his bunk, and behind him struggled his old dog.
The swamper had woke her by pounding on her door, he delivered an incoherent burble about some tough dame breaking into the saloon and drinking all the stock, so Madam came to investigate and found her girls already on the way down to deal with the invader.
None of the male saloon workers lived on the premises, an innovation since Madam Bulldog took over, and the old swamper was hustled indignantly into a room and locked in by one of the girls.