wharfinger

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English

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WOTD – 21 November 2024

Etymology

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    From Late Middle English wharfager (“keeper of a wharf”)[1] (modified in the same way as messenger from Middle English messager, passenger from Middle English passager, etc.),[2] from wharfage (“use of a wharf; payment for such use”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns, especially names of persons engaged in professions or trades).[3] Wharfage is probably derived from Medieval Latin wharfāgium, or from Middle English wharf (“structure projecting into a body of water for ships to moor and load or unload, pier, quay, wharf”) + -age (suffix forming nouns denoting actions, states, etc.).[4] By surface analysis, wharfage +‎ -er.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    wharfinger (plural wharfingers)

    1. (nautical, chiefly historical) The manager or owner of a wharf (“artificial landing place for ships on a riverbank or shore”).
      Synonym: wharfmaster
      Coordinate terms: docker, dockworker, wharfie; wharf rat
      Near-synonym: dockmaster
      • 1579, “Merchants & Merchandises”, in William Rastall [i.e., William Rastell], editor, A Collection of All the Statutes, from the Beginning of Magna Charta, vnto this Present Yeare of Our Lord God 1579, […], [London]: [Christopher Barker], →OCLC, paragraph 47, page 317, column 2:
        And be it further enacted by the authority aforeſaid, that if any wharfinger, crane keeper, ſearcher, lyghterman, weighter or other officer pertayning to the ſubſidie cuſtome, or cuſtome houſe, doo at any time after the ſaid day, conſent or knowe any offence or thing to bee committed or done contrary to yͤ true meani[n]g of this act, or any article ther in contained, and doo not within one moneth next after knowledge thereof had, diſcloſe the ſame to the chiefe cuſtomer […] ſhall for euery ſuch concelement, or not diſcloſing ſuch offence as is aforeſaid, forf[eit] & loſe C.li. of good and lawful money of England.
      • 1677, Charles Molloy, “Masters of Ships, Their Actions Considered in Reference to Cases Private and Publick”, in De Jure Maritimo et Navali: Or, A Treatise of Affairs Maritime and of Commerce. […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Bellinger […]; George Dawes […] [a]nd Robert Boulter […], →OCLC, book II, paragraph X, page 200:
        If fine goods or the like are put into a cloſe Lighter and to be conveyed from the Ship to the Key, it is uſual there that the Maſter ſends a Competent number of his Marriners to look to the Merchandize, if then any of the goods are loſt or imbezled, the Maſter is reſponſible and not the VVharfinger; but if ſuch goods are to be ſent aboard a Ship, there the VVharfinger at his peril muſt take care the ſame be preſerved.
      • 1871 February 15, William Holloway, Acting Chief Justice, “The Madras Railway Company v. The Zaminda’r of Ka’vatinaggur [Regular Appeal No. 108 of 1870]”, in P[atrick] O’Sullivan, J[ohn] M. C. Mills, editors, Madras High Court Reports: Reports of Cases Decided in the High Court of Madras in 1870 and 1871, Madras, Tamil Nadu: Higginbotham and Co., […], published 1872, →OCLC, page 187:
        My conclusions are, that, on the true understanding of the case of Fletcher v. Rylands, the Civil Judge's decree is right. That, if otherwise, the imposing of such a duty upon a landowner is forbidden by precisely the same principles as have forbidden the imposition upon Wharfingers, Railway Companies and Shipowners.
      • 1896 November 10, Samuel George Homfray, “The Machinery of the Tower Bridge [Paper No. 2992; Discussion]”, in J. H. T. Tudsbery, editor, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers; with Selected and Abstracted Papers, volume CXXVII, London: Institution [of Civil Engineers], […], published 1897, →OCLC, page 66:
        The trade of the Port of London, at any rate in regard to sea-going vessels, tended down the river, and an opening span became less and less necessary every year; and as that need became less, the compensation to wharfingers and others would also become less. Concurrently the need of the railways was growing, and, sooner or later, that need would overcome the opposition of the wharfingers
      • 1932 (date written), Samuel Beckett, chapter 2, in Eoin O’Brien, Edith Fournier, editors, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, London; Paris: Calder Publications, published 1993, →ISBN, page 7:
        It was the wharfinger, seeking whom he might devour. Belacqua gave heed to what was being said to him, and elicited in the end from an exuberance of coprolalia that the main was requiring him to go. "Get off my pier," said the wharfinger rudely, "and let me get home to my tea."
    2. (by extension, England, rail transport) The manager of a wharf along a railway line, that is, a place used for loading and unloading goods on to trains.
      • 1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 645:
        A female wharfinger—a grade of staff peculiar to the Wenford Mineral Line—lives in an adjacent house.

    Translations

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    References

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    1. ^ “wharfaǧer, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
    2. ^ “wharfinger, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “wharfinger, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
    3. ^ “-ē̆r(e, suf.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007..
    4. ^ “wharfāǧe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007; “wharf, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007; “-āǧe, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

    Further reading

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