Laborers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Workers who are involved in physical tasks, often in industries like farming or building
2. People engaged in manual labor, usually hired to complete tasks that require physical effort
3. Individuals who undertake jobs requiring bodily effort, commonly found in fields like construction and agriculture

Etymology: "Laborers" is the plural of "laborer," and the form is a plain compound of "labor" and the agent suffix "-er," so the story lies mostly in the suffix. The "-er" in "laborer" traces back through Middle English and Old French to Latin "-arius," a suffix that marked a person connected with a thing, and it reached English through a long chain that also produced Old English "-ere," a word for a doer or practitioner. Those "-ere" forms are the same root that gave English words like "baker" and "tanner." Because of that chain, the suffix in "laborer" is a doublet of the older English ending, a reminder that English has been building worker nouns from a common Latin-derived ending for centuries. The base word "labor" came into English through Old French from Latin "labor," meaning toil or exertion, so "laborer" literally means one who performs toil.

Synonyms: workers, employees, hands, staff, crew

Antonyms: employers, bosses, owners, managers, executives