Colliery

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒl.jə.ɹi/

Definitions

1. A facility dedicated to the extraction of coal, comprising the mining site and its associated structures for processing and equipment
2. An operational site for coal mining that includes both the extraction areas and the necessary processing infrastructure
3. A location where coal is mined, including both the areas of extraction and the associated systems for processing and handling the coal

Etymology: A collier was, for centuries, simply a charcoal-burner or a coal-carrying ship, and the suffix that turned that person into a place is the "-y" of abstract nouns and of place-names that name what a person does or owns. "Colliery" is therefore a word built from a worker's title rather than from the coal itself. The older "collier" comes from Old English "col", meaning charcoal or glowing ember, so the trade was named for the fuel's embers before it was named for the mineral. The suffix does the rest of the work. Adding "-y" to "collier" produced a word for the whole enterprise of colliering, and over time that enterprise came to mean the pit and its buildings. The shift runs from a person, to a trade, to the physical place where the trade happens, which is why a colliery today refers to the headgear, workings and washeries rather than to any individual miner.

Synonyms: mine, pit