hireling
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English hirlyng, from Old English hȳrling (“hireling, employee”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀijuling. Cognate with West Frisian hierling, Dutch huurling (“hireling, mercenary”), German Low German Hüürling, German Heuerling. By surface analysis, hire + -ling.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]hireling (plural hirelings)
- (usually derogatory) An employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 7:1, column 2:
- Is there not an appointed time to man vpon earth? are not his dayes alſo like the dayes of an hireling?
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Miss Crawley at Nurse”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 167:
- When my poor James was in the small-pox, did I allow any hireling to nurse him?
- (usually derogatory) Someone who does a job purely for money, rather than out of interest in the work itself.
- 1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 10, recto:
- […] it may bee truely affirmed, that no kinde of men loue buſineſſe for it ſelfe, but thoſe that are learned; for other perſons loue it for profite; as an hireling that loues the worke for the wages;
- 1821, Lord Byron, “Sardanapalus”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 56:
- These vain bickerings / Are spawn'd in courts by base intrigues and baser / Hirelings, who live by lies on good men's lives.
- A horse for hire.
- 1934, Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust, Chapter 3, Section 5:
- In the afternoon they went to a neighbouring livery stables to look for hirellings.
- (obsolete) A prostitute.
Synonyms
[edit]Translations
[edit]someone hired to perform unpleasant tasks
someone who does a job purely for money
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See also
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms suffixed with -ling
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English 2-syllable words
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
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