Jobbings

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Actions of performing small or frequent tasks; informal term for doing casual or minor work; engaging in activities to earn small amounts of money
2. The act of carrying out various petty or short-duration jobs; a colloquial way to describe doing bits of work for income; undertaking repetitive or minor labor
3. Refers to engaging in several small or incidental tasks; used informally for doing brief pieces of work or assignments; involving efforts to earn through temporary or small-scale jobs

Etymology: Jobbings is the plural of "jobbing," the form of "job" used for doing piecework or odd tasks for pay. The origin of "job" itself is uncertain. Some etymologists have suggested a link to the dialect word "gob," meaning a lump, as if the work came in chunks, but this remains unproven. The sense of "jobber" as a middleman who buys and resells goods, especially stocks, came before the modern sense of doing small tasks for hire. The idea of buying and reselling in small parcels is probably the root of the later meaning, though the exact path of that shift is not fully documented.

Synonyms: working, toiling

Antonyms: resting, idling