digger, n.
Etymology: < dig v. + -er suffix1.
One who or that which digs.
1. One who excavates or turns up the earth with a mattock, spade, or other tool; also an animal that turns up the earth. With adverb, as digger-up.
c1400 Promptorium Parvulorum 118/1
Deluar or dyggar, fossor.
1585 J. B. tr. P. Viret School of Beastes: Good Housholder sig. Bvj
The Connies..are such continuall diggers and scrapers, that they..cleave a sunder and make hollow the stones and rockes.
1608 J. Smith Let. in True Rel. Occurr. in Virginia
(1624)
iii. 72
Send..gardiners, fisher men, blacksmiths..and diggers vp of trees, roots, well provided.
1650 R. Stapleton tr. F. Strada De Bello Belgico x. 2
Prince Alexander..sometimes visiting the Diggers, sometimes the Miners.
1723 London Gaz. No. 6188/8
B. P. Gardiner, Digger and Builder.
1751 Johnson Rambler No. 154. ⁋11
Treasures are thrown up by the ploughman and the digger.
1895 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 623
The digger-up of primeval bones.
c1400—1895(Hide quotations)
2. spec.
a. A miner, especially one who works surface or shallow deposits.
1531–2 Act 23 Hen. VIII c. 8 §1
That no person or persons..shall labour, dig, or wash any tin in any of the said tin workes, called Streme workes, vnlesse the saide digger, owner or wassher, shall make..sufficient hatches and ties in the ende of their buddels and cordes [etc.].
1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. Math. Præf. sig. djv
For..Miners, Diggers for Mettalls..any man may easily perceaue..the great aide of Geometrie.
a1661 T. Fuller Worthies
(1662)
Wales 4
Fresh aire..whereby the Candle in the Mine is daily kept burning, and the Diggers recruted constantly with a sufficiency of breath.
1661 R. Boyle Some Considerations Style of Script.
(1675)
Ep. Ded. 6
As a homely digger may shew a man a rich mine.
1531–2—1661(Hide quotations)
b. esp. One who digs or searches for gold in a gold-field. Also attrib.
1853 Valiant Let. in T. McCombie Hist. Victoria
(1858)
xvi. 248
It caused the diggers..to pause in their headlong career.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits xiv. 253
Like diggers in California ‘prospecting for a placer’ that will pay.
1869 R. B. Smyth Gold Fields Victoria 609
Digger.. applied formerly to all persons who searched for gold; and now generally restricted to those who seek for gold in the shallow alluviums.
1875 Spectator
(Melbourne)
19 June 79/2
The rough digger of the primitive era.
1881 H. W. Nesfield Chequered Career vii. 75
Their manner of accosting me was simply their ‘digger’ style of humour.
1894 C. J. O'Regan Voices of Wave & Tree 10
But that was digger nature.
1853—1894(Hide quotations)
c. One of a tribe or class of N. American Indians who subsist chiefly on roots dug from the ground.
1837 W. Irving Adventures Capt. Bonneville II. 209
Sometimes the Diggers aspire to nobler game, and succeed in entrapping the antelope.
1848 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 64 132
They came upon a band of miserable Indians, who, from the fact of their subsisting chiefly on roots, are called the Diggers.
1883 B. Harte Carquinez Woods vii. 154
(note)
Diggers, a local name for a peaceful tribe of Indians inhabiting Northern California, who live on roots and herbs.
attrib.
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind vii. 185
The miserable ‘Digger Indians’, of North America.
1875 F. Parkman in N. Amer. Rev. 120 43
The abject ‘Digger’ hordes of Nevada.
1882 B. Harte Flip, & Found at Blazing Star 85
Ye might do it to please that digger squaw.
1837—1883(Hide quotations)
d. (a) Eng. Hist. A section of the Levellers in 1649, who adopted communistic principles as to the land, in accordance with which they began to dig and plant the commons. (b) In modern use, a member of a group of hippies who believe in a society where all food and possessions are shared freely and land is cultivated to feed the poor. Also attrib.
[1649 in Clarke Papers
(1894)
II. 211
[Information dated 16 Apr.] One Everard and two more..all living att Cobham, came to St. George's Hill in Surrey, and began to digge on that side the Hill next to Campe Close, and sowed the ground with parsenipps, and carretts, and beans.]
1649 in Clarke Papers
(1894)
II. 215
To his Excellency the Lord Fairfax..the Brotherly Request of those that are called Diggers, sheweth, That whereas we have begun to digg upon the Commons for a livelihood, first, for the righteous law of Creation that gives the earth freely to one as well as another.
1649 in C. H. Firth Clarke Papers
(1894)
II. 221 [The Digger's Song]
You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now..The wast land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name, Your digging does disdaine, and persons all defame, Stand up now, Diggers all.
1650 M. Nedham Case Common-wealth Eng. 79
There is a new Faction started up out of ours [Levellers], known by the name of Diggers; who..have framed a new plea for a Returne of all men ad Tuguria, that like the old Parthians..and other wild Barbarians, we might renounce Townes and Cities, live as Rovers, and enjoy all in common.
a1675 B. Whitelocke Memorials Eng. Affairs
(1682)
anno 1650 432/2
A Letter sent from the Diggers and Planters of Commons, for universal Freedom, to make the Earth a common Treasury.
1894 C. H. Firth in Clarke Papers II. 222
(note)
Three of the Diggers..were brought before the Court at Kingston for trespass in digging upon St. George's Hill, and infringing the rights of Mr. Drake, the Lord of the Manor.
1967 G. Legman Fake Revolt 19
Try to round up votes and get a bearded Digger or mock-saintly Provo elected mayor.
1967 Economist 15 July 217/2
A loosely knit group called the Diggers—taking the name from agrarian communists in the seventeenth century who cultivated waste lands to feed the poor—is operating pads for homeless hippies and dispensing free food and clothing, obtained by soliciting contributions from shopkeepers.
1968 Guardian 29 Apr. 7/5
The first Digger conference opened at London Anti-university over the weekend.
1969 Guardian 27 Sept. 9/1
A leader of the London Diggers..describes his group as ‘communal hippies, nonviolent basically and nonauthoritarian’.
1649—1969(Hide quotations)
1911 T. E. Lawrence Home Lett.
(1954)
149
Thompson is not a digger, so the direction of that part would be my share.
1914 R. Kipling Lett. of Trav.
(1920)
256
Their dream (the diggers' dream always) is to discover a virgin tomb.
1960 Times 22 Feb. 14/1
Woolley will always be remembered as one of the most successful diggers ever engaged in field archaeology.
1911—1960(Hide quotations)
f. (a) Austral. and N.Z. colloq. Also with capital initial. Used as a friendly form of address, originally amongst soldiers. Cf. cobber n.2
(b) colloq. Frequently with capital initial. A soldier, esp. a private soldier, from New Zealand or (later chiefly) Australia, esp. one serving in the First World War (1914–18) or Second World War (1939–45).
(a) Austral. and N.Z. colloq. Also with capital initial. Used as a friendly form of address, originally amongst soldiers. Cf. cobber n.2
[Apparently originally a transferred use of sense 2b. Compare note at sense 2f(b).]
1915 Advertiser
(Adelaide)
18 Dec. 15/1
‘The recruiting platforms should be filled with our public men... In the present crisis it is Empire before State.’ (A voice—‘Rub it into them, old digger!’).
1916 Let. in Western Argus
(Kalgoorlie, W. Austral.)
19 Dec. 15/2
Sociability appears to be the password. You can hear on every side, ‘Give's a match, Digger,’ or ‘Give's a cigarette, Cobber.’
1917 N. M. Ingram Anzac Diary 7 Oct.
(1987)
54
I ask him how he feels. ‘Not so bad Digger,’ he replies.
1918 Digger 13
On the wing with the jam, Digger.
1948 R. Finlayson Tidal Creek i. 8
Put your bag under the seat, digger.
1980 J. Wolfe End of Pricklystick 177
An old man was staring at me. ‘How are you, Digger?’ he grinned.
2007 Courier Mail
(Austral.)
(Nexis)
8 Aug. 4
We'll always joke about it [sc. our Australian heritage]. I'll be like, ‘G'day digger’ and he'll be like, ‘G'day love.’
1915—2007(Hide quotations)
(b) colloq. Frequently with capital initial. A soldier, esp. a private soldier, from New Zealand or (later chiefly) Australia, esp. one serving in the First World War (1914–18) or Second World War (1939–45).
[Apparently originally (like sense 2f(a)) a transferred use of sense 2b. Perhaps reinforced by association with the digging of trenches, especially in the First World War. (Frequently assumed by later commentators to have originated as an allusion to the digging of trenches.)]
1917 Chrons. N.Z.E.F. 5 Sept. 28/1
He ain't no digger; that's the colonel or the sergeant-major.
1917 E. Miller Camps, Tramps & Trenches
(1939)
xxiv. 192
A digger officer would have worded the message quite differently.
1919 W. H. Downing
(title)
Digger dialects. A collection of slang phrases used by the Australian soldiers on active service.
1919 Athenæum 8 Aug. 727/2
[The soldier]..gave nicknames to the Overseas troops, as ‘Aussies’, ‘Diggers’, or ‘Dincums’ for Australians.
1929 C. C. Martindale Risen Sun 14
Where my experience of the Diggers really began was a little club in the Turl, to which hospital cases came.
1940 War Illustr. 16 Feb. p. iii/1
They are forming a new Digger Expeditionary Force, but old blokes like me are not wanted.
1941 Illustr. London News 199 534/1
They are a mixed lot, these ‘diggers’, some from offices, others from factories.
1963 Evening Post
(Wellington, N.Z.)
26 Dec.
Remembering the old diggers at this festive time of the year.
1968 Telegraph
(Brisbane)
3 May 1/7
American troops visiting Australia on R and R leave are to be briefed on the exploits of Diggers in Vietnam.
1991 Courier Mail
(Austral.)
(Nexis)
7 May 4
An Australian military medical team will leave on Friday for Kurdish refugee camps in northern Iraq... The diggers will be protected by British troops but will also carry personal firearms.
2003 Observer
(Nexis)
5 Jan. 13
At Gallipoli, according to the legend, the gallant Diggers were deployed as cannon fodder by snooty, stupid British officers.
1917—2003(Hide quotations)
3. An instrument for digging, a digging tool; also the digging part of a machine. Also in various combs. as hop-digger, potato-digger, etc.
1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. ix. 353
They weed their Wheat..with an Iron digger.
1819 G. Samouelle Entomologist's Compend. 308
The digger is best with an arrow-headed point.
1839 A. Gray Lett.
(1894)
I. 144
He presented me with a beautiful botanical digger of fine polished steel, with a leathern sheath.
1861 S. Thomson Wanderings among Wild Flowers
(rev. ed.)
iii. 155
A short ‘digger’ or hand ‘spud’.
1861 Times 11 July
As the engine travels slowly forward, the digger cuts and throws up the soil behind.
1686—1861(Hide quotations)
4. A division of Hymenopterous insects, also called digger-wasps.
1847 W. B. Carpenter Zool.: Systematic Acct. II. §693
The Crabronidæ, Labridæ, Bembecidæ, Sphegidæ, Sciolidæ, Mutilidæ..may be termed from their peculiar habits..Fossores or Diggers; and they are commonly known as Sand and Wood-Wasps.
1871 E. F. Staveley Brit. Insects 203
The second division of the predacious stinging Hymenoptera, known as Fossores, or diggers, consists of the Sand-wasps and Wood-wasps.
1847—1871(Hide quotations)
5. slang.
a. A spur.
1789 G. Parker Life's Painter xv. 173
Spurs. Diggers.
1811 Lexicon Balatronicum s.v. (Farmer).
1789—1811(Hide quotations)
b. A finger-nail.
1859 G. W. Matsell Vocabulum s.v. (Farmer).
1881 N.Y. Slang Dict. (Farmer)
‘I will fix my diggers in your dial-plate and turn it up with red.’
1859—1881(Hide quotations)
c. A card of the spade suit; big-digger, the ace of spades (Farmer Slang).
Compounds
Comb.
digger-pine n. a N. American species of pine, Pinus sabiniana.
digger plough n. a plough that breaks down the furrow-slice by means of a projecting wing or continuation of the mould-board.
1935 Hutchinson's Techn. & Sci. Encycl. I. 38/2
Modern mould-board ploughs fall generally into one or other of two classes: general purpose ploughs..and digger ploughs, which leave the soil flat and broken.
1935 Hutchinson's Techn. & Sci. Encycl. I. 38/2
In the general purpose plough the share is a pointed wedge... In the digger plough the share is wider and steeper and has a concave upper surface.
1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 23 Feb. 64/2
Both competitors will use two ploughs—a free digger plough on stubble and a semi-digger on a one-year ley.
1935—1960(Hide quotations)
digger's delight n. Austral. a species of speedwell, Veronica perfoliata, so called from the supposition that it grows only on auriferous soil.
1878 W. R. Guilfoyle Austral. Bot. 64
Digger's Delight... A pretty, blue-flowering shrub with smooth stem-clasping leaves.
1888 D. Macdonald Gum Boughs 147
Such native flowers as the wild violet, the shepherd's purse, or the blue-flowered ‘digger's delight’.
1878—1888(Hide quotations)
digger-wasp n. (see sense 4).
1880 Libr. Universal Knowl. IX. 123
The digger-wasps..catch locusts..and bury them in their nests for their newly hatched young.
1880—1880(Hide quotations)