worker

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *wr̥ǵyéti

Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną

Proto-West Germanic *wurkijan

Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-

Proto-Indo-European *-om

Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom

Proto-Germanic *werką

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Germanic *-janą

Proto-Germanic *wirkijaną

Proto-West Germanic *wirkijan

Old English wyrċan

Middle English worchen

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-os?

Proto-Indo-European *-o-

Proto-Indo-European *-so-

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂so-

Proto-Indo-European *-yós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂s(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-āsijos

Proto-Italic *-āsios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

Middle English werkere, worchere

English worker

Inherited from Middle English worchere, werkere, equivalent to work +‎ -er. Displaced the older term wright, from Old English wyrhta.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɜː.kə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɝ.kɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kə(ɹ)

Noun

worker (plural workers)

1. One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor.

   Hyponyms: laborer, labourer; blue-collar worker, white-collar worker; drone, drudge

   Coordinate terms: boss, manager, employer (sometimes coinstantial)

   Near-synonym: employee

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 37:1:

     Fret not thy ſelfe becauſe of euill doers, neither bee thou enuious againſt the workers of iniquitie.

   • 1986, Janice G. Raymond, A Passion for Friends: Toward a Philosophy of Female Affection‎^[1], Boston: Beacon Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 124:

     Writer Ta Chen, in a statistical study of industrial labor in China in 1933, recorded that 66.6 percent of the total number of workers in the four main industrial regions of Kwangtung were women. In Shun-te, 81.2 percent of the labor force were women.

   • 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist‎^[2], volume 411, number 8884, archived from the original on 7 July 2014:

     Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese […] began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated. The poisoning was irreversible, and soon ended in psychosis and death. Nowadays workers are exposed to far lower doses and manganism is rare.

   • 2017 February 2, Jeff Farrell, “Fukushima nuclear disaster: Lethal levels of radiation detected in leak seven years after plant meltdown in Japan”, in The Independent‎^[3], London, archived from the original on 10 April 2019:

     Although the radiation levels identified are high, a threat to human health is very unlikely because apart from workers at the site, no-one goes there.

   • 2018 March 24, Lydia DePillis, “Few noticed, but Congress just banned restaurants from skimming tips”, in CNN‎^[4], archived from the original on 9 December 2024:

     That would allow employers to keep some tip money for themselves, as long as each worker made at least the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

2. A nonreproductive social insect, such as ant, bee, termite, or wasp.
   1. (rare) A female ant, bee, termite or wasp.
3. (computing) A thread performing one instance of a particular task within a program.

   This FTP client spawns a separate worker for each file to be uploaded.

Derived terms

• aid worker
• anti-worker, antiworker
• artworker
• autoworker
• barworker
• beadworker
• bodyworker
• brain worker
• brassworker
• bronzeworker
• building worker
• cabinetworker
• camera worker, camera-worker
• careworker
• caseworker
• clothworker
• coalworker
• construction worker
• copperworker
• counterworker
• co-worker, coworker
• craftworker
• crowdworker
• dayworker, day worker, day-worker
• decoration worker
• deskworker
• dock worker, dockworker
• domestic worker
• dreamworker
• enamelworker
• essential worker
• evilworker
• exworker
• faceworker
• factoryworker
• farm worker
• farmworker
• featherworker
• fieldworker
• fireworker
• fishworker
• flameworker
• flintworker
• freezing worker
• garmentworker
• gasworker
• gig worker
• glassworker
• goldworker
• groundworker
• guest worker
• hairworker
• handworker
• hard worker
• headworker
• health worker
• healthy worker bias
• hideworker
• homeworker
• houseworker
• hybrid worker
• ironworker
• itinerant worker
• key worker, keyworker
• knowledge worker
• laceworker
• lampworker
• landworker
• leatherworker
• lightworker
• lineworker
• link worker
• lush worker, lush-worker
• McWorker
• meatworker
• metalworker
• migrant worker
• millworker
• mineworker
• miracle worker
• nightworker
• nonworker
• office worker
• paperworker
• peace worker
• pieceworker
• pipeworker
• playworker
• poll worker
• polyworker
• portfolio worker
• postal worker
• pressworker
• printworker
• process worker
• proworker
• relief worker
• remote worker
• replicated worker
• roadworker
• rootworker
• ropeworker
• saltworker
• sanitation worker
• seasonal worker
• second-storey worker
• seiðworker
• service worker
• sex worker
• shedworker
• shellworker
• shiftworker
• shipworker
• shock worker
• shopworker
• silverworker
• soapworker
• social worker
• spade-worker, spadeworker
• steel worker, steelworker, steel-worker
• stoneworker
• storeworker
• storyworker
• streetworker
• street worker
• stuccoworker
• subworker
• teamworker
• teleworker
• threshold worker
• timeworker
• track worker, trackworker
• underworker
• undocumented worker
• unworker
• vibe worker
• wageworker
• war worker
• war-worker
• waterworker
• waxworker
• white-collar worker
• wickerworker
• wireworker
• wonderworker
• woodworker
• woolworker
• worker bee
• workeress
• workerism
• workerist
• workerless
• workerlike
• worker-priest
• workers' compensation, workers' comp
• workership
• workers of the world, unite
• workers' paradise
• workers' party
• workers' salute
• youth worker
• zincworker

Translations

person who performs labor — see also operative

• Afrikaans: werker (af)
• Aghwan: 𐕌𐕒𐕡𐔽𐔰𐕄 (muˁaḳ)
• Albanian: punëtor (sq) m, punëtore (sq) f
• Amharic: ሠራተኛ (śäratäña)
• Arabic: عَامِل m (ʕāmil), عَامِلَة f (ʕāmila), شَغِّيل m (šaḡḡīl), شَغِّيلَة f (šaḡḡīla)
• Aragonese: treballador
• Armenian: աշխատող (hy) (ašxatoġ), (manual labor) բանվոր (hy) (banvor)
• Aromanian: lucrãtor m, lucrãtonj m, argat m
• Asturian: obreru m, trabayador m
• Azerbaijani: işçi (az), fəhlə (az), zəhmətkeş
• Bashkir: эшсе (işsi)
• Basque: langile
• Belarusian: рабо́тнік m (rabótnik), рабо́тніца f (rabótnica), працаўні́к m (pracawník), працаўні́ца f (pracawníca), рабо́чы m (rabóčy), рабо́чая f (rabóčaja)
• Bengali: কর্মী (bn) (kormi)
• Breton: labourer (br) m, micherour (br) m
• Bulgarian: рабо́тник (bg) m (rabótnik), рабо́тничка f (rabótnička)
• Burmese: အလုပ်သမား (my) (a.lupsa.ma:), လုပ်သား (my) (lupsa:)
• Catalan: treballador (ca) m, treballadora (ca) f, obrer (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 工人 (zh) (gōngrén), 工作者 (zh) (gōngzuòzhě), 勞動者 / 劳动者 (zh) (láodòngzhě), 劳工 (zh) (láogōng)

• Circassian:

  West Circassian: лэжьакӏо (lɛźakʷʼo)

• Cornish: oberer m, oberores f, gweythor m, gweythores f
• Czech: dělník (cs) m, dělnice (cs) f
• Danish: arbejder (da) c
• Dutch: (♂♀) arbeider (nl) m, (♀) arbeidster (nl) f, (♂♀) arbeidskracht (nl) m or f
• Egyptian: (kꜣwtj)
• Esperanto: (♂♀) laboristo, (♀) laboristino, (♂♀) laboranto, (♀) laborantino, (♂♀) proleto, (♀) proletino, (♂♀) proletario, (♀) proletariino
• Estonian: töötaja (et)
• Evenki: һавалимни
• Finnish: työläinen (fi), työntekijä (fi)
• French: travailleur (fr) m, travailleuse (fr) f, ouvrier (fr) m, ouvrière (fr) f
• Galician: obreiro (gl) m
• Georgian: მუშა (ka) (muša), მუშაკი (mušaḳi)
• German: Arbeiter (de) m, Arbeiterin (de) f, Angestellter (de) m, Angestellte (de) f, (Austrian German, colloquial) Hackler (de) m, Hacklerin f, Arbeitnehmer (de) m, Arbeitnehmerin (de) f

  East Central German: Arbittr m

• Gothic: 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍃𐍄𐍅𐌰 m (waurstwa)
• Greek: εργάτης (el) m (ergátis), εργάτρια (el) f (ergátria)

  Ancient Greek: ἐργάτης m (ergátēs), ἐργάτις f (ergátis)

• Haitian Creole: travayè
• Hebrew: עוֹבֵד m (oved), עובדת f (ovedet), פּוֹעֵל (he) m (po'él), פּוֹעֶלֶת f (pó'élet)
• Hindi: मज़दूर (hi) m (mazdūr), श्रमिक m (śramik), कामगार (hi) m (kāmgār)
• Hungarian: munkás (hu)
• Icelandic: starfsmaður (is) m, verkamaður (is) m
• Ido: laboristo (io)
• Indonesian: buruh (id)
• Ingrian: tööläin
• Irish: oibrí (ga) m
• Italian: lavoratore (it), operaio (it), lavorante (it)
• Japanese: 労働者 (ja) (ろうどうしゃ, rōdōsha), 勤労者 (ja) (きんろうしゃ, kinrōsha), 働く人 (ja) (はたらくひと, hataraku hito)
• Kazakh: жұмысшы (jumısšı)
• Khmer: បុគ្គលិក (km) (bokkĕəʼlɨk), កម្មករ (km) (kamkɑɑ), អ្នកធ្វើការ (nĕək thvəə kaa)
• Korean: 노동자(勞動者) (ko) (nodongja), 로동자(勞動者) (ko) (rodongja) (North Korea), 근로자(勤勞者) (ko) (geulloja)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کرێکار (krêkar)

  Northern Kurdish: karker (ku) m or f

• Kyrgyz: жумушчу (ky) (jumuşcu)
• Ladin: laurant
• Ladino: lavorante, ovrero, ovrador, lavurador (Monastir)
• Lao: ກຳມະກອນ (kam ma kǭn), ຄົນການ (khon kān), ຄົນເຮັດ (khon het), ພະນັກງານ (pha nak ngān)
• Latin: operārius m
• Latvian: strādnieks (lv) m, strādniece f
• Lithuanian: darbininkas (lt) m, darbininkė f
• Luxembourgish: Aarbechter (lb)
• Macedonian: работник (mk) m (rabotnik), работничка f (rabotnička)
• Malay: pekerja (ms)
• Maltese: ħaddiem m, ħaddiema f
• Manx: obbree m
• Māori: kaimahi
• Middle English: werkman, worchere, wrighte
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: ажилчин (mn) (ažilčin), ажилтан (mn) (ažiltan)

  Mongolian script: ᠠᠵᠢᠯᠴᠢᠨ (aǰilčin)

• Mwani: nkolakazi
• Norman: ouvriyi m (Jersey), travailleux m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: arbeider (no) m (male or female), arbeidsmann m (male)

  Nynorsk: arbeidar m (male or female), arbeidsmann m (male)

• Occitan: trabalhaire (oc) m, obrièr (oc) m
• Old English: wyrhta m
• Pannonian Rusyn: роботнїк m pers (robotnjik), роботнїца f (robotnjica)
• Pashto: کارګر m (kārgar), کاريګر m (kārigar)
• Persian:

  Classical Persian: کَارْگَر (kārgar)

  Dari: کَارْگَر (kārgar)

  Iranian Persian: کارْگَر (kârgar), فَعَلِه (fa) (fa'ale) (collective, used as singular), عَمَلِه (fa) (amale) (collective, used as singular)

• Polish: robotnik (pl) m, robotnica (pl) f
• Portuguese: trabalhador (pt) m
• Quechua: llamk'aq
• Romanian: lucrător (ro) m, lucrătoare (ro) f, muncitor (ro) m, muncitoare (ro) f, angajat (ro) m, angajată (ro) f
• Russian: рабо́тник (ru) m (rabótnik), рабо́тница (ru) f (rabótnica), рабо́чий (ru) m (rabóčij), рабо́чая (ru) f (rabóčaja), трудя́щийся (ru) m (trudjáščijsja), трудя́щаяся f (trudjáščajasja), тру́женик (ru) m (trúženik), тру́женица (ru) f (trúženica)
• Scottish Gaelic: obraiche m, neach-obrach m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ра̑днӣк m, ра̑дница f

  Latin: rȃdnīk (sh) m, rȃdnica (sh) f

• Shor: ишчи (işçi)
• Sicilian: travagghiaturi (scn) m, lavureri (scn) m, opiraiu (scn) m, operaiu (scn) m, lavuraturi (scn) m
• Sinhalese: කම්කරුවා (kamkaruwā), වැඩකාරයා (wæḍakārayā)
• Slovak: robotník m, robotníčka f
• Slovene: delavec (sl) m, delavka f
• Spanish: trabajador (es) m, obrero (es) m
• Sranan Tongo: wrokoman
• Swahili: mfanyakazi (sw), mfanyaji
• Swedish: arbetare (sv) c
• Tagalog: manggagawa, trabahador
• Tajik: коргар (tg) (korgar)
• Tatar: эшче (tt) (eşçe)
• Thai: คนงาน (th) (kon-ngaan), กรรมกร (th) (gam-má-gɔɔn), พนักงาน (th) (pá-nák-ngaan), ลูกจ้าง (th) (lûuk-jâang), คนทำงาน (kon-tam-ngaan), ผู้ปฏิบัติงาน (pûu-bpà-dtì-bàt-ngaan), ผู้ใช้แรงงาน (pûu-chái-rɛɛng-ngaan)
• Tibetan: ལས་མི་ (las mi), ངལ་རྩོལ་བ (ngal rtsol ba), ལས་ཀ་བྱེད་མཁན (las ka byed mkhan)
• Tigrinya: ሰራሕተኛ (säraḥtäña)
• Turkish: işçi (tr), emekçi (tr), amele (tr), faale (tr)
• Turkmen: işçi
• Udi: аьшбал (äšbal), ашбал (ašbal)
• Ukrainian: робітни́к (uk) m (robitnýk), робітни́ця f (robitnýcja), працівни́к (uk) m (pracivnýk), працівни́ця (uk) f (pracivnýcja), трудя́щий m (trudjáščyj), трудя́ща f (trudjášča)
• Urdu: مَزدُور m (mazdūr), کامْگار m (kāmgār)
• Uyghur: ئىشچى (ug) (ishchi)
• Uzbek: ishchi (uz)
• Vietnamese: công nhân (vi)
• Volapük: (♂♀) voban (vo), (♂) hivoban, (♀) jivoban (vo)
• Yiddish: אַרבעטער m (arbeter), אַרבעטערין f (arbeterin)

insect

• Breton: labourerez f
• Czech: dělnice (cs) f
• Finnish: työläinen (fi)
• French: ouvrier (fr) m, ouvrière (fr) f
• Georgian: მუშა (ka) (muša)
• German: Arbeiterin (de) f, Arbeitsameise f (ant), Arbeitsbiene (de) f (bee), Arbeitstermite f (termite), Arbeitswespe f (wasp)
• Hungarian: dolgozó (hu)
• Indonesian: pekerja (id)
• Norman: ouvriyi m
• Polish: robotnica (pl) f
• Portuguese: operário (pt) m
• Romanian: albină lucrătoare f (bee)
• Russian: рабо́чий (ru) m (rabóčij) (ant, termite), рабо́чая пчела́ f (rabóčaja pčelá) (bee), рабо́чая оса́ f (rabóčaja osá) (wasp)
• Spanish: obrera (es) f
• Vietnamese: thợ (vi)

Anagrams

• rework

Middle English

Noun

worker

1. alternative form of worchere