Wharfager

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who owns or operates a wharf and collects fees for the use of its berths and landing facilities
2. The keeper of a wharf, historically responsible for loading, unloading and storing goods that arrive by ship
3. An archaic term for someone who runs a quay or landing place on a waterway and oversees the goods passing over it

Etymology: Before it meant a structure built out over water, "wharf" meant the bank of a river or shore. Its Old English ancestor, "hwerf," is probably related to "hweorfan," meaning "to turn," a nod to the way a shoreline bends. Ships tied up along those banks, and people gradually built landings there, so the sense shifted from the natural edge to the man-made quay. This term is a straightforward formation: "wharf" plus the suffix "-age," as in "postage" or "anchorage," which marks a charge or a payment, and then the agent suffix "-er." "Wharfage" is the fee for using a wharf, and "wharfager" is a person who holds charge of a wharf or collects its dues. It is a rare word, mostly found in older commercial and legal writing, so it has no dramatic backstory, but its parts show how the sense of "wharf" moved from shoreline to structure to a fee charged for using it.