brow

From Middle English browe, from Old English brū, from Proto-West Germanic *brāwu, from Proto-Germanic *brūwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“brow”).
Compare Middle Irish brúad, Tocharian B pärwāne (“eyebrows”), Lithuanian bruvìs, Serbo-Croatian obrva, Russian бровь (brovʹ), Ancient Greek ὀφρύς (ophrús), Sanskrit भ्रू (bhrū)), Persian ابرو (abru, “eyebrow”), Khowar بروُ (bruú).

(mining) A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.


panel

From Middle English panel (“piece of cloth, saddle pad, pane of glass, piece of ice, part, division, jury list, jury members”), from Anglo-Norman panel, panelle (“piece of cloth, saddle cushion”), from Vulgar Latin *pannellus, diminutive of Latin pannus (“cloth, rag, garment”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂n- (“fabric”). Cognate with Old English fana (“a piece of cloth, patch, banner, flag, vane”). Doublet of vane.

cog

(mining) One of the districts divided by pillars of extra size, into which a mine is laid off in one system of extracting coal.


rider

writer (with flapping but without Canadian raising)

From Middle English ryder, ridere, from Late Old English rīdere (“rider, knight”). Compare Dutch rijder, German Reiter. By surface analysis, ride + -er.

kalorës

one who rides — see also cyclist, driver

fo-fhadhb

math: problem of extra difficulty added to another on an examination paper

(mining, now rare) Rock material in a vein of ore, dividing it.


gob

Back-formation from gobbing, or a specified use of Etymology 1, above.

This consisted in wheeling gob back to the most distant part of the stope and filling up the sets right up to the roof.

1930, Engineering and Mining Journal, volume 130, page 330:

(uncountable, mining) Waste material in old mine workings, goaf.


gob

en-verb

gob (third-person singular simple present gobs, present participle gobbing, simple past and past participle gobbed)

gobs (present singular third-person)
gobbing (participle present)
gobbed (participle past)
gobbed (past)

(mining, intransitive) To pack away waste material in order to support the walls of the mine.


lodge

→ Dutch: lodge

From Middle English logge, from Old French loge (“arbour, covered walk-way”), from Frankish *laubijā (“shelter; arbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *laub (“leaf; folliage”) (whence English leaf).
See also (compare cognate Medieval Latin lobia, laubia; also Old High German louba (“porch, gallery”) (German Laube (“bower, arbor”)), Old High German loub (“leaf, foliage”), Old English lēaf (“leaf, foliage”). Doublet of loggia and lobby.

cog

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond

(mining) The space at the mouth of a level next to the shaft, widened to permit wagons to pass, or ore to be deposited for hoisting; called also platt.


cager

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cager.wav

(mining) A person or machine responsible for managing a mineshaft cage.


gadder

(mining, historical) A drilling or perforating machine or apparatus for mining and mineral exploration.


lander

(mining) A person who waits at the mouth of the shaft to receive the kibble of ore.


return

en-noun

return (countable and uncountable, plural returns)

From Middle English returnen, retornen, from Anglo-Norman returner, from Old French retourner, retorner, from Medieval Latin retornare (“to turn back”), from re- + tornare (“to turn”). Compare beturn.

der

(mining) A roadway along which foul air travels from the face on its way out of the mine.


jig

Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.

(mining) An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.

rosta

mining: apparatus or machine for jigging ore


jig

en-verb

jig (third-person singular simple present jigs, present participle jigging, simple past and past participle jigged)

jigs (present singular third-person)
jigging (participle present)
jigged (participle past)
jigged (past)

(mining) To sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.


riffle

Possible alteration of ruffle, from Middle English ruffelen, akin to Low German ruffelen (“to crumple”).

(mining) A trough or sluice having cleats, grooves, or steps across the bottom for holding quicksilver and catching particles of gold when auriferous earth is washed. Also one of the cleats, grooves or steps in such trough.

корито

mining: trough or sluice, or the cleats or grooves in it


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

(mining) The sieve used in sorting or separating ore.

(mining) One who jigs; a miner who sorts or cleans ore by the process of jigging.


dram

desctree

→ Danish: dram
→ Faroese: drammur
→ Norwegian: dram

→ Scottish Gaelic: dràm

From Middle English dragme, dramme, from Old French dragme, drame, from Late Latin dragma, from Latin drachma, from Ancient Greek δραχμή (drakhmḗ, “unit of weight; a handful”). Doublet of drachma, diram, dirham, dirhem, and adarme.

doublet

The rolling stock, consisting entirely of four-wheel open trucks, or drams, was broken up at Bonvilles Court Colliery.

1946 November and December, “The Saundersfoot Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 340:

(historical, mining) A cart formerly used to haul coal in coal mines.


cog

Inherited from Middle English cogge, from Old Norse [Term?] (compare Norwegian kugg (“cog”), Swedish kugg, kugge (“cog, tooth”)), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (compare Dutch kogge (“cogboat”), German Kock), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”).
The meaning of “cog” in carpentry derives from association with a tooth on a cogwheel.

der

(mining) One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.


slurry

en-noun

slurry (countable and uncountable, plural slurries)

Unclear; probably related to Middle English sloor (“thin or fluid mud”); compare slur. From mid-15th c.

cog

Slurry tailings ponds are by far the major type of containment facilities for slurry tailings.

2006, Raymond N. Yong, Catherine N. Mulligan, Masaharu Fukue, Geoenvironmental Sustainability, page 145:

mountain top removal mining
mountain top removal mining

(mining) Liquid waste from some types of mining, such as mountain top removal mining, usually very toxic and stored nearby in large dams.


gouge

en-noun

gouge (countable and uncountable, plural gouges)

From Middle English gouge (“chisel with concave blade; gouge”), from Old French gouge, goi (“gouge”), from Late Latin goia, gubia, gulbia (“chisel; piercer”), borrowed from Gaulish *gulbiā, from Proto-Celtic *gulbā, *gulbi, *gulbīnos (“beak, bill”). The English word is cognate with Italian gorbia, gubbia (“ferrule”), Old Breton golb, Old Irish gulba (“beak”), Portuguese goiva, Scottish Gaelic gilb (“chisel”), Spanish gubia (“chisel, gouge”), Welsh gylf (“beak; pointed instrument”), gylyf (“sickle”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

inh

At some of the mines on the great Mother Lode, where hundreds of tons are not unfrequently thrown down at a blast, and where a wide, soft "gouge" along one wall enables the minder to keep two or three sides of the rock free, and give the powder the greatest opportunity to "lift" without waste of power, the cost of drilling and blasting per ton is so low that a reduction of one-third, even if it could be made, would not greatly affect the general count; […]

1869, Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond, “Giant Powder and Common Powder”, in The Mines of the West: A Report to the Secretary of the Treasury, New York, N.Y.: J. B. Ford and Company […], →OCLC, page 34:

The geologic relations seen at the surface continue underground, but in addition 5 to 10 feet of gouge, dipping 68°E, is found to separate the serpentine from the ore zone. The gouge is not sufficiently resistant to erosion to crop out. […] A "bull" quartz vein occurs in places along the contact of the gouge and the ore zone. It does not constitute ore.

1930, Edward Wilber Berry, “Systematic Descriptions”, in Revision of the Lower Eocene Wilcox Flora of the Southeastern States: With Descriptions of New Species, Chiefly from Tennessee and Kentucky ([United States] Geological Survey Professional Paper; 156), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 83, column 1:

(mining) Soft material lying between the wall of a vein and the solid vein of ore.

harina

(mining) soft material lying between the wall of a vein and the solid vein


spavin

(mining) The stratum of earth underneath a coal deposit.


thrum

From Middle English thrum, throm (> Anglo-French trome), from Old English *þrum (found in tungeþrum (“ligament of the tongue”)) from Proto-Germanic *þrumą. Cognate with German Trumm, Trümmer and Old Norse thrǫmr (“edge, brim”).

(mining) A shove out of place; a small displacement or fault along a seam.


bonanza

→ Polish: bonanza

From Spanish bonanza (“calm sea, fair weather, good luck, rich lode”), from Medieval Latin bonacia (“fair weather”), a blend of bonus (“good”) + malacia (“calm sea”).

blend

(mining) A rich mine or vein of silver or gold.


daze

From Middle English, back-formation from dazed.
Compare dasask (“to become weary”), with reflexive suffix -sk, Swedish dasa (“lie idly”), and Icelandic dasask (“to make weary with cold”). Also compare Proto-Germanic *dusāną, to slumber.
Alternatively from Middle Dutch dasen (“act silly”).


banker

From bank (“an elevation, or rising ground”) + -er (relational noun suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix).


brace

From Middle English brace, from Old French brace (“arm”), from Latin bracchia, the nominative and accusative plural of bracchium (“arm”).

(British, Cornwall, mining) The mouth of a shaft.


girdle

From Middle English girdel, gerdel, gurdel, from Old English gyrdel, from Proto-West Germanic *gurdil, from Proto-Germanic *gurdilaz (“girdle, belt”), equivalent to gird + -le.
cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gäddel (“belt”), West Frisian gurdle, gurle, gurl (“belt”), Dutch gordel (“belt”), German Gürtel (“belt”), Yiddish גאַרטל (gartl, “belt”) (whence gartel, a doublet of girdle), Swedish gördel (“girdle”), Icelandic gyrðill (“girdle”).

inh

(mining) A thin bed or stratum of stone.


heave

en-verb

heave (third-person singular simple present heaves, present participle heaving, simple past heaved or hove, past participle heaved or hove or hoven or heft)

heaves (present singular third-person)
heaving (participle present)
heaved (past)
hove (past)
heaved (participle past)
hove (participle past)
hoven (participle past)
heft (participle past)

→ Danish: hive

→ Faroese: hiva

desc

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: hiva, hive (e and split infinitives)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: hive

→ Scanian: hyva

Hallandian: hiva

→ Swedish: hiva

Sudermannian: hyva

From Middle English heven, hebben, from Old English hebban, from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to take up, lift”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂pyéti, from the root *keh₂p-. See also have.
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian heffe, Dutch heffen ("to raise", "to lift"), German heben ("to raise", "to lift"), Danish hæve ("to raise", "to lift"), Albanian kap (“I grasp, seize”), Old Irish cáin (“law, tribute”), cacht (“prisoner”), Latin capiō (“to take”), Latvian kàmpt (“to seize”), Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”), κώπη (kṓpē, “handle”)).

cog

(transitive, mining, geology) To displace (a vein, stratum).


drift

en-noun

drift (countable and uncountable, plural drifts)

From Middle English drift, dryft (“act of driving, drove, shower of rain or snow, impulse”), from Old English *drift (“drift”), from Proto-Germanic *driftiz (“drift”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Equivalent to drive + -t; cognate with North Frisian drift (“drift”), Saterland Frisian Drift (“current, flow, stream, drift”), Dutch drift (“drift, passion, urge”), German Drift (“drift”) and Trift (“drove, pasture”), Danish drift (“impulse, instinct”), Swedish drift (“impulse, instinct”), Icelandic drift (“drift, snow-drift”).

cog

(mining) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery.

tunneli

passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel

(mining) An adit or tunnel driven forward for purposes of exploration or exploitation; generally eventually to a dead end.

(mining) A sloping winze or road to the surface, for purposes of haulage.

(mining) In a coal mine, a heading driven for exploration or ventilation.

(mining) Of a boring or a driven tunnel: deviation from the intended course.

(mining) A heading driven through a seam of coal.


drift

en-verb

drift (third-person singular simple present drifts, present participle drifting, simple past and past participle drifted)

drifts (present singular third-person)
drifting (participle present)
drifted (participle past)
drifted (past)

(mining, US) To make a drift; to examine a vein or ledge for the purpose of ascertaining the presence of metals or ores; to follow a vein; to prospect.


fuse

From Italian fuso and French fusée, from Latin fūsus (“spindle”).

(manufacturing, mining, military) The mechanism that ignites the charge in an explosive device; a detonator.


rapper

(historical, mining) A swinging knocker for making signals at the mouth of a shaft.


cradle

From Middle English cradel, credel, from Old English cradol, from Proto-West Germanic *kradul, from Proto-Germanic *kradulaz, from Proto-Germanic *kradô (“(wicker) basket”). Related to cart.

der

the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

Rough men brought pickle bottles full of nuggets. Mysterious dirty-looking calico bags were opened, disclosing small quantities of water-worn flaky gold, which had been washed out of the beds of rivers with a cradle.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 146:

(mining) A machine on rockers, used in washing out auriferous earth.

rocker

machine on rockers used in washing out auriferous earth

(mining) A suspended scaffold used in shafts.


trapper

From trap + -er, compare french trappeur.

(mining, historical) A worker (usually a child) who opens and shuts a door in a gallery or level of a mine, to manage ventilation and access.


spire

From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.

(mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.


wailer

From wail + -er; see wail (“choose, select”).

(mining, historical) A boy employed to pick out stones, pyrites, etc. remaining in the coal after it is screened.


fret

From Middle English frēten (“to eat (at), corrode, destroy, annoy”), from Old English fretan (“to eat up, devour; to fret; to break, burst”), from Proto-West Germanic *fraetan, from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (“to consume, devour, eat up”), from Proto-Germanic *fra- (“for-, prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (“forward, toward”)) + *etaną (“to eat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)).
The senses meaning “to chafe, rub” could also be due to sound-association with Anglo-Norman *freiter (modern dialectal French fretter), from Vulgar Latin *frictāre, frequentative of Latin fricāre, from fricō (“to chafe, rub”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (“to cut”); compare Old French froter (modern French frotter). The chief difficulty is the lack of evidence of the Old French word.
cognates
*Dutch vreten, fretten (“to devour, hog, wolf”)
*Low German freten (“to eat up”)
*German fressen (“to devour, gobble up, guzzle”)
*Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraitan, “to devour”)
*Swedish fräta (“to eat away, corrode, fret”)
*Danish fråse (“to gorge”)

cog

Then we obſerve the Frets in the Banks of Rivers that are newly made by any great Land-Flood, which uſually are then very clean, to ſee, if happily we can diſcover any metalline Stones in the Sides and Bottoms thereof, together with the Caſt of the Country (i.e. any earth of a different colour from the reſt of the Bank), which is a great help to direct us, which ſide or hill to ſearch into.

1716, “[The Tin Mines in Devonshire and Cornwal] [marginal note]”, in John Lowthorp, editor, The Philosophical Transactions, and Collections, to the End of the Year 1700, Abridg’d and Dispos’d under General Heads, volume II (Containing All the Physiological Papers), London: Printed for Robert Knaplock, at the Bishop's-Head; Richard Wilkin, at the King's-Head; and Henry Clements, at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard, →OCLC, page 566:

(mining, in the plural) The worn sides of riverbanks, where ores or stones containing them accumulate after being washed down from higher ground, which thus indicate to miners the locality of veins of ore.


slack

Probably from German Schlacke (“dross, slag”). Doublet of slag.

One of the important improvements of recent years has been attained by mixing the peat pulp as it passes through the grinding machine, with other inflammable materials, such as bituminous coal dust, or slack […]

1905, Colliery Engineer, volume 25, page 107:

It had rather a woolly and uneven beat and was inclined to prime, but there was no trouble with steaming even though the tender contained mostly small slack and dust.

1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 220:


ringer

From Middle English ringere, rynger, ryngar, equivalent to ring (“to sound a bell”) + -er.


butty

But Alfred Charlesworth did not forgive the butty these public-house sayings. Consequently, although Morel was a good miner, sometimes earning as much as five pounds a week when he married, [...]

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 1, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

(mining) A miner who works under contract, receiving a fixed amount per ton of coal or ore.


bedrock

en-noun

bedrock (countable and uncountable, plural bedrocks)

From bed (“a layer on top of which something else rests.”) + rock.

compound

bed<t:a layer on top of which something else rests.>

The denudation of the land was upon a grand scale. All superficial accumulations were swept away, and the bedrock was exposed.

1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XL, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

Listen! It's big. Only eight to twenty feet to bedrock. There won't be a claim that don't run to half a million.

1912 October, Jack London, “The Stampede to Squaw Creek”, in Smoke Bellew, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co, →OCLC:

(uncountable, geology, mining, engineering, construction) The solid rock found at some depth below the ground surface.


bunny

From Middle English bony, boni (“swelling, tumor”), from Old French bugne, buigne (“swelling, lump”), from Old Frankish *bungjo (“swelling, bump”), from Proto-Germanic *bungô, *bunkô (“lump, clump, heap, crowd”). More at bunion, bunch.

(mining) A sudden enlargement or mass of ore, as opposed to a vein or lode.


gang

en-noun

gang (countable and uncountable, plural gangs)


squat

From Middle English squatten, from Old French esquatir, escatir (“compress, press down, lay flat, crush”), from es- (“ex-”) + quatir (“press down, flatten”), from Vulgar Latin *coactire (“press together, force”), from Latin coāctus, perfect passive participle of cōgō (“force together, compress”).
The sense “nothing” may be the source or a derivation of diddly-squat.


ripper

(mining) A hook-like tool used to tear away ore, rock, etc.

(mining) A person employed to tear away ore, rock, etc. to make a passage for material to be carried to the surface.


shift

en-noun

shift (countable and uncountable, plural shifts)

From Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijaną, *skiptijaną, from earlier *skipatjaną (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate, part”). Cognate with Scots schift, skift (“to shift”), West Frisian skifte, skiftsje (“to sort”), Dutch schiften (“to sort, screen, winnow, part”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship.

cog

(mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.


warrant

en-noun

warrant (countable and uncountable, plural warrants)

→ Cantonese: 窩輪／窝轮 (wo¹ leon⁴⁻²), 花令

→ Italian: warrant

The noun is derived from Middle English warant (“protector; guard, shield, protection”), from Anglo-Norman warrant, Old Northern French warant, warand, a variant of Old French guarant, garant, garand (“assurance, guarantee; authorization, permission; protector; protection, safety”) (modern French garant), from Frankish *warand, present participle of *warjan (“to fend off; to stop, thwart”). The word is cognate with Old High German werento (“guarantor”).
The verb is derived from Middle English warrant, waranten (“to give protection; to protect, shield; to assure, pledge, promise; to guarantee”), from Anglo-Norman warantir, warandir, warentir, and Old Northern French warandir, warantir, variant forms of Old French guarantir (“to protect”) (modern French garantir), a Romance formation from the noun guarant: see above.

inh

(mining, uncountable) Underclay in a coal mine.


bunch

From Middle English bunche, bonche (“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin.
Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung (“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkō, *bunkô, *bungǭ (“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ-, *bʰéng̑ʰus (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke (“bone”), West Frisian bonke (“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk (“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk (“bone”), German Bunge (“tuber”), Danish bunke (“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki (“heap, pile”); Hittite [Term?] (/panku/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante (“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búožė (“knob”), Ancient Greek παχύς (pakhús, “thick”), Sanskrit बहु (bahú, “thick; much”)).
Alternatively, perhaps from a variant or diminutive of bump (compare hump/hunch, lump/lunch, etc.); or from dialectal Old French bonge (“bundle”) (compare French bongeau, bonjeau, bonjot), from West Flemish bondje, diminutive of West Flemish bond (“bundle”).

cog

The ore may be disseminated throughout the matrix in minute particles, as gold in quartz; in parallel threads, strings, and plates, as with copper; in irregular pockets or bunches

1874, David Page, Economic Geology: Or, Geology in Its Relations to the Arts and Manufactures:

(geology, mining) An unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.


garland

From Middle English garland, garlaunde, gerland, from Old French garlande, garlaunde, gerlande, guerlande (compare French guirlande), from Frankish *wierlōn, *wieralōn, a frequentative form of Frankish *wierōn (“to adorn, bedeck”), from *wiera (“a gold thread”), from or related to Proto-Germanic *wīraz.
Akin to Old High German wieren (“to adorn”), Old High German wiara (“gold thread”). More at wire.

(mining) A metal gutter placed round a mineshaft on the inside, to catch water running down inside the shaft and run it into a drainpipe.


wicket

From Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wiket, from Old Norse (specifically, Old East Norse) víkjas, diminutive of vik. Compare modern French guichet, ultimately from the same Old Norse source.

(mining) The space between the pillars, in post-and-stall working.


sink

a bathroom sink sink (canonical)
sinks (plural)

From Middle English synken, from Old English sincan, from Proto-West Germanic *sinkwan, from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷ- (“to fall, sink”).
Compare West Frisian sinke, Low German sinken, Dutch zinken, German sinken, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål synke, Swedish sjunka. In the causative sense, it replaced Old English senċan (“make sink”) from Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną.

der

(mining) An excavation smaller than a shaft.


tunnel

→ Afrikaans: tonnel

→ Armenian: թունել (tʻunel)

→ Czech: tunel

→ Danish: tunnel

→ Dutch: tunnel

→ Finnish: tunneli

desctree

→ French: tunnel
Haitian Creole: tinèl
→ Armenian: թիւնէլ (tʻiwnēl)
→ Ottoman Turkish: تونل (tünel), طونل (tünel)
Turkish: tünel
→ Romanian: tunel

→ German: Tunnel

→ Greek: τούνελ (toúnel)

→ Italian: tunnel

→ Japanese: トンネル

→ Korean: 터널 (teoneol)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: tunnel, tunell

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: tunnel, tunell

→ Polish: tunel

→ Portuguese: túnel

→ Russian: тунне́ль (tunnélʹ)

→ Kazakh: түнел (tünel)

→ Scottish Gaelic: tunail

→ Serbo-Croatian: tùnēl

→ Spanish: túnel

→ Swedish: tunnel

→ Uzbek: tunnel

From Middle French tonnelle (“net”) or tonel (“cask”), diminutive of Old French tonne (“cask”), a word of uncertain origin and affiliation. Related to Old English tunne (“tun; cask; barrel”). More at tun.

(mining) A level passage driven across the measures, or at right angles to veins which it is desired to reach; distinguished from the drift, or gangway, which is led along the vein when reached by the tunnel.


fault

From Middle English faute, faulte, from Anglo-Norman faute, Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“shortcoming”), feminine of *fallitus, in place of Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Displaced native Middle English schuld, schuild (“fault”) (from Old English scyld (“fault”)), Middle English lac (“fault, lack”) (from Middle Dutch lak (“lack, fault”)), Middle English last (“fault, vice”) (from Old Norse lǫstr (“fault, vice, crime”)). Compare French faute (“fault, foul”), Portuguese falta (“lack, shortage”) and Spanish falta (“lack, absence”). More at fail, false.

cog

A point at which something is divided, interrupted, or disconnected.

(mining) An intrusion of another material, such as dirt or slate, within a coal seam.


screen

From Middle English scren, screne (“windscreen, firescreen”), from Anglo-Norman escren (“firescreen, the tester of a bed”), Old French escren, escrein, escran (modern French écran (“screen”)), from Middle Dutch scherm, from Old Dutch *skirm, from Proto-West Germanic *skirmi, from Proto-Germanic *skirmiz (“fur, shelter, covering, screen”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut, divide”).
Cognate with Dutch scherm (“screen”), German Schirm (“screen”). Doublet of scherm.
An alternative etymology derives Old French escren, escran from Old Dutch *scranc (“barrier”) (compare Middle Dutch schranc, schranke (“palisade, trellis, grid”), German Schrank (“cupboard, cabinet”), German Schranke (“fence”)), from Proto-West Germanic *skrank, from Proto-Germanic *skrankaz.

der

A material woven from fine wires intended to block animals or large particles from passing while allowing gasses, liquids and finer particles to pass.

(mining, quarrying) A frame supporting a mesh of bars or wires used to classify fragments of stone by size, allowing the passage of fragments whose a diameter is smaller than the distance between the bars or wires.


district

→ Luganda: disitulikit

From French district, from Medieval Latin districtus (“a district within which the lord may distrain, also jurisdiction”), from Latin districtus, past participle of distringere (“to draw asunder, compel, distrain”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”). Doublet of Detroit.

дистри́кт

USA and some other English-speaking countries

(mining) A specific, usually named area of the coalface where particular seams are worked.


dresser

From Middle English dresser, equivalent to dress + -er.

(mining) A kind of pick for shaping large coal.


strip

Brill Publishers
en:strip (disambiguation)

From alteration of stripe or from Middle Low German strippe, of uncertain ultimate origin, perhaps derived from a lost strong verb Proto-Germanic *strīpaną, with no clear cognates outside of Germanic except for Irish sríab (“line, stripe”).


coffin

Borrowed from Cornish koghyn (“exploratory trench”), with spelling likely influenced by etymology 1.

bor+

(mining, obsolete) An exploratory trench used when first digging a mine.


stall

From Middle English stall, stalle, from Old English steall (“standing place, position”), from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, put, post, stand”).

der

(mining) The space left by excavation between pillars.


downcast

en-noun

downcast (countable and uncountable, plural downcasts)

From Middle English downcast (“misfortune”), adoun-cast (“destruction, overthrow”), from adoun (“downward”) + cast (“a throw, a cast”) (from Old Norse kast (“a throw”), from kasten (“to cast, throw”)), from Middle English casten adoun: see etymology 1. The English word is analysable as down- (prefix meaning ‘lower direction or position’) + cast (“act of throwing”, noun).

prefix

(countable, mining, chiefly attributive) A ventilating shaft down which air passes in circulating through a mine.


berm

From Dutch berm (“strip of roadside grass, verge”), probably via French berme, from Middle Dutch barm, baerm, barem (“verge, bank”), from Old Dutch *barm, from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“edge, border, seam”). Related to English brim.

der

(mining, Australia) One of the flat terraces on the slope of an open-pit mine.

(mining, US, Canada) A small wall along the edge of a bench of an open-pit mine, intended to prevent items falling over the crest.


gallery

From Middle English galery, gallerye, from Middle French galerie, gallerie, from Old French galerie, gallerie (“a long portico, a gallery”), from Medieval Latin galeria (“gallery”), perhaps an alteration of galilea (“church porch”), probably from Latin Galilaea, Galilee, region of Palestine. More at Galilee.


sidetrack

railroad siding

small railroad track for unloading, passing

(mining) A smaller tunnel or well drilled as an auxiliary off a main tunnel or well.


gin

Partly from Middle English gin, ginne (“cleverness, scheme, talent, device, machine”), from Old French gin, an aphetism of Old French engin (“engine”); and partly from Middle English grin, grine (“snare, trick, stratagem, deceit, temptation, noose, halter, instrument”), from Old English grin, gryn, giren (“snare, gin, noose”).

(mining) A hoisting drum, usually vertical; a whim.


winning

The train proceeded to North Pittington Colliery, 600 yd. away, where the Duke viewed the new winning, examined the pumping and drawing engines, and saw how pitmen descended and ascended the shaft.

1948 January and February, “Notes and News: Duke of Wellington's Early Railway Journey”, in Railway Magazine, page 55:


twitch

en-noun

twitch (countable and uncountable, plural twitches)

From Middle English twicchen, from Old English *twiċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *twikkijan (“to nail, pin, fasten, clasp, pinch”).
Cognate with English tweak, Low German twikken, German Low German twicken (“to pinch, pinch off”), zweckōn and gizwickan (> German zwicken (“to pinch”)).

cog

(mining) The sudden narrowing almost to nothing of a vein of ore.


skip

From Middle English skep, skeppe, from Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa (“basket”).

Beside it was a great engine which worked a continuous steel rope on which the skips were fastened which drew up the débris by successive stages from the bottom of the shaft.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

(mining) A transportation container in a mine, usually for ore or mullock.

Fördergefäß

mining: transportation container in a mine, usually for ore or mullock


glory hole

(mining) A hole in a mineshaft where an orebody is mined upwards until it breaks through the surface into the open air.

(mining) An excavation into the sea floor designed to protect the wellhead equipment installed at the surface of a petroleum well from icebergs or pack ice.


whim

en-noun

whim (countable and uncountable, plural whims)

(mining) A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes


washout

washout (countable and uncountable, plural washouts)

huuhtoutuminen

erosion of a relatively soft surface by a sudden gush of water; channel produced by this action

(mining) A place in a mine where ore has been washed away by a flow of water.


black jack

black jack (countable and uncountable, plural black jacks)


whimsy

whimsy (usually uncountable, plural whimsies)

Probably from whims + -y. Related to whim-wham, whim.

(mining) A whim (capstan or vertical drum).


hitch

Probably from Middle English hicchen, hytchen, icchen (“to move; to move as with a jerk”), of obscure origin. Lacks cognates in other languages. Compare itch, hike.

An upcast fault is when the seam is thrown up; to counteract this a "canch" of top stone must be taken down outbye over from the fault, and a "canch" of bottom stone taken up inbye over from the fault, then level up to the bottom of your "canch" at the foreside of the hitch outbye over until you have a regular gradient to the seam on the hitch.

1879, William Bailes, Student's Guide to the Principles of Coal & Metal Mining, page 17:

A coal cutter and conveyor is used along the face, and after each cut the hitch had to be crossed at a new point.

1897, Great Britain. Mines Department, Mines and Quarries. Reports ... for the Newcastle District (No. 3) (page 32)

(mining) A hole cut into the wall of a mine on which timbers are rested.


dead end

The ventilation of dead ends — always a serious problem — has in some mines been an absolute necessity. At the Oriental Consols Gold Mine a crosscut at a depth of 2,600 ft. has been continued to over 1,400 ft. from the shaft, and at the No. 2 South Great Eastern Gold Mine crosscutting and driving has been carried on at depths of 1,750 ft. and 2,000 ft. In order to ventilate these dead ends blowers have been used to force air into the faces through lines of pipes.

1912 Queensland Annual Report of the Under Secretary for Mines for 1911. Brisbane, Australia. p.167

(mining) The inner end of a drift or tunnel.


scram

en-verb

scram (third-person singular simple present scrams, present participle scramming, simple past and past participle scrammed)

scrams (present singular third-person)
scramming (participle present)
scrammed (participle past)
scrammed (past)

The verb is a variant of dialectal English scramb (“to pull or rake together with the hands; to gather a handful of something from the ground; to scratch with the claws or nails; to pull down violently; to tear off; to maul about; a handful of something from the ground”), possibly related to Dutch schrammen (“to graze, scratch”) and German schrammen (“to scratch, scrape”); see etymology 1.
The noun is derived from the verb.

Just west of this pit is another one, which has been nearly worked out; but three men are scramming about five tons per day in it.

1880, “Marquette Iron District”, in Annual Report of the Commissioner of Mineral Statistics of the State of Michigan, for 1879, Lansing, Mich.: W. S. George & Co., […], →OCLC, page 167:

Recently, Capt. Oliver, [...] set a couple of experienced miners to work scramming in this underground pit, when it was soon discovered that what the former mining captain had conceived to be a regular foot-wall, was, in fact, a thin shale of rock, which hid from view what now appears to be a very large body of clean blue ore.

1882, A. P. Swineford, “The Cyclops Mine”, in Annual Review of the Iron Mining and Other Industries of the Upper Peninsula for the Year Ending Dec. 31, 1881, [Marquette, Mich.]: Mining Journal, →OCLC, page 141:

(transitive, US, mining, archaic) To mine for ore on a small scale, especially from mines previously been worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed.


scram

[page 64] Many of these old openings still afford places where ore is mined. A man can start in almost anywhere and fine ore. There is a great deal of this "scramming" done at the Jackson. Quite a proportion of the annual product comes in this way. Not unfrequently one of these "scrams" leads to the finding of a large deposit of ore. [...] [page 67] South from the east part of the Incline pit they have a scram of good ore which furnished a small product.

1887, Cha[rle]s D. Lawton, “The Jackson Iron Co.”; “The Cleveland Mining Co.”, in Mines and Mineral Statistics, Lansing, Mich.: Thorp & Godfrey, […], →OCLC, pages 64 and 67:

There are numbered workings running to about 20, representing small pits and scrams, sometimes worked by contract by "scrammers."

1891, N[ewton] H[orace] Winchell, H[orace] V[aughn] Winchell, “The Chandler Mine”, in The Iron Ores of Minnesota, […] (Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota Bulletin; no. 6), Minneapolis, Minn.: Harrison & Smith, […], →OCLC, part II (Methods of Exploration and Mining, and Descriptions of the Various Mines), page 196:

(US, mining, archaic) A mine previously worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed, but which is still being mined on a small scale.


staunch

Either:
* from Middle English staunche, stanche (“something which stops the flow of blood; (figuratively) shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)”), from Old French estanche (“pond; tank”), from estanc (“pond”) (modern French étang (“pond; lagoon”)), from estanchier (verb): see further at etymology 2; and/or
* derived directly from the verb.

(mining) Synonym of afterdamp (“suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp”)


winder

From Middle English wynder; equivalent to wind + -er.

(mining) An engine that raises and lowers the cages in a mine.

(mining) The person who operates such an engine.


tug

From Middle English tuggen, toggen, from Old English togian (“to draw, drag”), from Proto-West Germanic *togōn, from Proto-Germanic *tugōną (“to draw, tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”).
Cognate with Middle Low German togen (“to draw”), Middle High German zogen (“to pull, tear off”), Icelandic toga (“to pull, draw”). Related to tow.

cog

(mining) An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed.


viewer

From Middle English vewer; equivalent to view + -er.

(mining, historical) The manager of a colliery, who directs its workings and ventilation.


gulf

From Middle English gulf, goulf, golf, from Old French golf, from Italian golfo, from Late Latin colfos, from Ancient Greek κόλπος (kólpos, “bosom, gulf”), of obscure origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to curve, arch”).

der

(mining) A large deposit of ore in a lode.


trumpeting

(mining) A channel cut behind the brick lining of a shaft.


wheal

The four last-mentioned mines, Wheal Crowndale, Wheal Crebor, East Liscombe, and Wheal Tamar, are on the same lode, which ranges as usual from east to west, and are included in a space of about four miles in length.

1829, Thomas Moore, The History of Devonshire, page 528:

Surrounding the village are the remains ot many mine workings including the picturesque gtoup of clifftop buildings thar were once part of one of the county's best known mines - Wheal Coares.

2003, Peter Long, The Hidden Places of Cornwall, page 85:

If you look at the map there are ‘wheals’ all over the place. There's Wheal Rose, Wheal Plenty and Wheal Busy. Back on the tramroad the industrial communities come thick and fast as you head southeast to Wheal Rose.

2010, Julia Bradbury, Julia Bradbury's Railway Walks, page 27:

(Cornwall, South Australia, mining) A mine.


underhand

en-verb

underhand (third-person singular simple present underhands, present participle underhanding, simple past and past participle underhanded)

underhands (present singular third-person)
underhanding (participle present)
underhanded (participle past)
underhanded (past)

About one-half the body has been mined by underhanding into mill holes; but with the adoption of the water drill, shrinkage stoping is being largely used and the larger stopes are mined as at Levack.

1903, Mining Reporter - Volume 47, page 480:

The floors are then extracted by underhanding, and finally the pillars at the levels are trimmed to the minimum size necessary to support the walls.

1925, Bureau of Mines Information Circular, page 166:

This method is used only in a one-set panel mined from level to level by underhanding into the chute at the foot- wall end of the previous panel.

1942, Mining Technology - Volume 6, Issue 1, page 9:

(mining) To excavate downward in successive steps or horizontal slices while positioned above on unbroken ore.


flush

flush (third-person singular simple present flushes, present participle flushing, simple past and past participle flushed)

flushes (present singular third-person)
flushing (participle present)
flushed (participle past)
flushed (past)

Probably from Etymology 1 according to the American Heritage Dictionary.

(mining, intransitive) To operate a placer mine, where the continuous supply of water is insufficient, by holding back the water, and releasing it periodically in a flood.

(mining) To fill underground spaces, especially in coal mines, with material carried by water, which, after drainage, constitutes a compact mass.


deputy

From French député, from Late Latin deputatus (“appointed”).

պատգամավոր

member of parliament — see also legislator, Member of Parliament

(mining, historical) A person employed to install and remove props, brattices, etc. and to clear gas, for the safety of the miners.


drifter

(mining, historical) A person employed in driving in rock other than coal.


spill

l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand

From Middle English spillen, from Old English spillan, spildan (“to kill, destroy, waste”), from Proto-West Germanic *spilþijan, from Proto-Germanic *spilþijaną (“to spoil, kill, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to sunder, split, rend, tear”).
Cognate with Dutch spillen (“to use needlessly, waste”), French gaspiller ("to waste, squander" < Germanic), Bavarian spillen (“to split, cleave, splinter”), Danish spilde (“to spill, waste”), Swedish spilla (“to spill, waste”), Icelandic spilla (“to contaminate, spoil”).

cog

(mining) One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.


lue

en-verb

lue (third-person singular simple present lues, present participle luing, simple past and past participle lued)

lues (present singular third-person)
luing (participle present)
lued (participle past)
lued (past)

Cardiganshire... That which is thus Buddled they lue with a thick hair sieve close wrought in a tub of water.

1674, John Ray, A Collection of English Words, Not Generally Used, page 116:

Cornwall... The fine [sc. tin] is lewed in a fine sierce.

1674, John Ray, A Collection of English Words, Not Generally Used, page 122:

(mining, dialect, transitive) To sift using a sieve, particularly in mining tin or silver.


beeline

From bee + line, due to the belief that a bee returns to its hive in a straight course, originally an Americanism.

(mining, chiefly historical) A dynamite fuse made with a small quantity of dynamite powder along its length, so that the spark travels quickly and at a specific known rate.

тура һауа юлы

straight course, ignoring established paths of travel


groove

From Middle English grov, grove, groof, grofe (“cave; pit; mining shaft”), from Old English grōf (“trench, furrow, something dug”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōbu, from Proto-Germanic *grōbō (“groove, furrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scrape, bury”). Cognate with Dutch groef, groeve (“groove; pit, grave”), German Grube (“ditch, pit”), Norwegian grov (“brook, riverbed”), Serbo-Croatian grèbati (“scratch, dig”). Directly descended from Old English grafan (“to dig”). More at grave.


pitfall

First recorded use in the 14th century from pit + fall in the sense of "pit trap, pit snare", from Old English fealle (“trap, snare”), from Proto-Germanic *fallą, *fallaz (“a fall, trap”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pōl-. Cognate with German Falle (“trap, snare”).

This pitfall, beginning in February and finishing in May, resulted in a drop of about 3 ft. in the platform level; during this period it was necessary to level the track three times weekly, and impose a service slack of 15 m.p.h. The subsidence appears now to have finished, and normal speed is once again permitted.

1939 June, “Pertinent Paragraphs: Pitfalls”, in Railway Magazine, page 456:

(mining) Subsidence below ground in a mine, which can cause the ground level above to drop.


tights

→ Japanese: タイツ (taitsu)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-tights.wav

(mining) In blasting rock, a piece of unbroken rock within the pay limit of a blast.


bonny

(mining) A round and compact bed of ore, or a distinct bed, not communicating with a vein.


barring

/ˈbɑːɹɪŋ(ɡ)/

(mining) Timber used for supporting the roof or sides of shafts.


squib

Possibly imitative of a small explosion.

unk

Possibly

(mining) A kind of slow match or safety fuse.


bailiff

From Middle English baillif, baylyf, from Anglo-Norman and Old French bailif (plural bailis), probably from Vulgar Latin *bāiulivus (“castellan”), from Latin bāiulus (“porter; steward”), whence also bail. As a translation of foreign titles, semantic loan from French bailli, Scots bailie, Dutch baljuw, etc. Mostly replaced the role of native reeve. Doublet of bailo.

Bailiffs of Jersey and Guernsey
High Bailiff of the Isle of Man
Landvogt
bailiff

مَأْمُور

equivalent officers of the court in foreign contexts

(historical, mining) The foreman or overman of a mine.

A private administrator, particularly
The foreman or overman of a mine.


headway

en-noun

headway (countable and uncountable, plural headways)

Partly from Middle English hauedwei, from Old English hēafodweġ (“head-road, main-road”), equivalent to head + way; partly as a shortening of ahead-way, the source of the nautical sense.


staple

From Middle English stapel (“staple, pillar, post”), from Old English stapol (“post, pillar”), from Proto-West Germanic *stapul, from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz, from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ- (“post, stem”).
See also Old English steppan (“to step”) and Old French estaple (“post”). Consider also stapes (“stirrup”), from Latin. Doublet of étape and etymology 1.

krammetjie

wire fastener used to secure stacks of paper

(mining) A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one, joining different levels.


tub

From Middle English tubbe, tobbe, from Middle Dutch tubbe or Middle Low German tubbe, tobbe, further etymology unknown. Considered to be unrelated to tube.

(mining) A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft.


airway

(mining) A roadway used for ventilation.


comminution

en-noun

comminution (countable and uncountable, plural comminutions)

From Latin comminūtiō (“breaking into pieces, crumbling, shattering; crushing, pulverizing”), from Latin comminuō (“to break or crumble into small pieces; to crush, pulverize”) (from com- (prefix indicating completeness) + minuō (“to make smaller; to diminish, lessen”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“little, small”)) + Latin -tiō (suffix forming a noun relating to some action or the result of an action); equivalent to comminute + -ion.

der

He deſcribes in a Mechanical way the manner of its Action; ſuppoſing that ſome of its Particles having undergone ſeveral Comminutions (tho not a Diſſolution) from the various Firments they have paſſed, arrive at laſt, with the Blood, at the Brain; […] thoſe of them, which are not ſmall enough to paſs thoſe Straits along with the Juice, being juſt admitted, ſtick there till other appelling Subſtances give them a farther Comminution, and ſo pretrude them along: […]

1692–1693 February, “VI. An Account of a Book. Novæ Hypotheseos, ad explicanda febrium intermittentium Symptomata & Typos excogitatæ Hypotyposis. Unà cum Ætiologià Remediorium; speciatim vero de curatione per Corticem Peruvianum. Accessit Dissertatiuncula de Intestinorum motu Peristaltico. Authore Guilielmo Cole, M.D. Lond. in 8º. 1693.”, in Philosophical Transactions, volume VI, number 197, London: Printed for, and sold by Samuel Smith, printer to the Royal Society, at the Princes Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard, published 1693, →OCLC, page 652:

[W]hen a proportionable piece [of an aliment (food item)] is thus taken into the Mouth, the lower Jaw is variouſly mov'd by its proper Muſcles, and Maſtication is begun and carryed on by the Aſſiſtance of the Tongue, Cheeks, and Lips; the two firſt ſtill applying the leſs divided parts of the Aliment, to the Dentes Molares [molar teeth], till there's an equal Comminution of all its Parts; […]

1696 March–May, William Cowper, “IV. An Account of Chylification”, in Philosophical Transactions. Giving Some Accompt of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume XIX, number 220, Oxford: Printed at the Theater, and are to be sold by Samuel Smith, at the Prince's Arms in Sᵗ Paul's Church-yard, London; and Henry Clements, bookseller in Oxford, →OCLC, pages 231–232:

It's [the mouth's] hooked Form is of great Uſe to the rapacious Kind [of bird], in catching and holding their Prey, and in the Comminution thereof by tearing; to others it is no less ſerviceable to their climbing, as well as neat and nice Comminution of their Food.

1714, W[illiam] Derham, “Of the Food of Animals”, in Physico-theology: Or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation. Being the Substance of Sixteen Sermons Preached in St. Mary le Bow-Church, London, at the Honourable Mr. Boyle’s Lectures, in the Year 1711 and 1712. With Large Notes, and Many Curious Observations, 3rd corrected edition, London: Printed for W. Innys, at the Prince's-Arms in St. Paul's Church Yard, →OCLC, page 193:

[B]y what process, we would ask, could these sands have been sifted and separated agreeable to their grades, as they are now found? What circumstances could have effected such comminutions, such separations, such transpositions, and transportations of the several kinds, having all the same origin?

1854, Andrew Brown, chapter 13, in The Philosophy of Physics: Or, Process of Creative Development, by which the First Principles of Physics are Proved beyond Controversy, and Their Effect in the Formation of All Physical Things Made Comprehensible to All Intelligent Minds, as in Phenomenal Nature, New York, N.Y.: [J. S.] Redfield, 110 & 112 Nassau Street, →OCLC, page 417:

What circumstances determine the degree of comminution to which a substance should be subjected preparatory to future extraction?

1873, Barnard S. Proctor, “Lecture II. Comminution.”, in Lectures on Practical Pharmacy, London: J[ohn] & A[ugustus] Churchill, New Burlington Street, →OCLC, page 28:

I hadn't fought ten seconds befre I felt this softness in him, realised all that quality of modern upper-class England that never goes to the quick, that hedges about rules and those petty points of honour that are the ultimate comminution of honour, that claims credit for things demonstrably half done.

1908, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Of Bladesover House, and My Mother; and the Constitution of Society”, in Tono-Bungay […], Toronto, Ont.: The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd., →OCLC, 1st book (The Days before Tono-Bungay was Invented), section VIII, page 40:

Termites are herbivores and detritivores variously involved in the comminution and decomposition of vegetable matter, through most of the warm temperate and tropical zones.

1978, J. P. La Fage, W. L. Nutting, “Nutrient Dynamics of Termites”, in M. V. Brian, editor, Production Ecology of Ants and Termites (International Biological Programme; 13), Cambridge, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 165:

(often mining, waste management) The breaking or grinding up of a material to form smaller particles.


hade

en-verb

hade (third-person singular simple present hades, present participle hading, simple past and past participle haded)

hades (present singular third-person)
hading (participle present)
haded (participle past)
haded (past)

Uncertain. Perhaps from a dialectal form of head.

It was found, however, that where the coal haded away from the floor towards the face, as in Fig. 2(6), [...]

1935, Institution of Mining Engineers (Great Britain), Transactions, page 60:

The author details the benefits arising from arranging the quarry faces to be haded backwards at say 20-25° off vertical and to be of reasonable height, say 50-60ft. These include the reduction of danger ...

Plot's observation that the veins haded to the north-east is consistent with the workings around Stone Quarry Mine but not the main Ecton Pipe at depth nor the mines from Clayton Pipe southwards.

2000, Lindsey Porter, John Albert Robey, The Copper & Lead Mines Around the Manifold Valley, North Staffordshire:

(geology, mining) To slope or incline from the vertical.


saddle

→ Japanese: サドル (sadoru)

Homer Tunnel
Milford Sound
Oxford English Dictionary

From Middle English sadel, from Old English sadol, from Proto-West Germanic *sadul, from Proto-Germanic *sadulaz (“saddle”). Further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *sod-dʰlo-, from *sed- (“to sit”) + *-dʰlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting instruments or tools)), though the Oxford English Dictionary says this “presents formal difficulties”.
cognates
* Danish sadel
* Dutch zadel
* German Sattel
* Icelandic söðull
* Low German Sadel
* Russian седло́ (sedló)
* Saterland Frisian Soadel
* Scots sadil
* Swedish sadel
* West Frisian seal

saal

seat for a rider placed on the back of a horse or other animal

satula

something resembling a saddle in appearance or shape

satula

depression located along the axial trend of an anticline

Something resembling a saddle (sense 1) in appearance or shape.

(geology) An anticline (“fold with strata sloping downwards on each side”); specifically, a depression located along the axial trend of such a fold.

(chiefly Australia, mining) Synonym of saddle reef (“a saddle-shaped bedded mineral (usually gold-bearing quartz) vein occurring along the crest of an anticline or (less common) a syncline (an inverted saddle)”)


feeder

From Middle English feedere, federe, fedare, equivalent to feed + -er.

(mining) Synonym of blower (“fissure from which firedamp issues”)


ticketing

en-noun

ticketing (countable and uncountable, plural ticketings)

(UK, mining, dated) A periodic sale of ore in the mining districts, in which buyers wrote their bids upon tickets.


trapdoor

(mining) A door in a level for regulating the ventilating current; a weather door.


streamer

From Middle English stremer, stremere, equivalent to stream + -er.

(mining) One who searches for stream tin.


cockle

From Middle English cokel, cokkel, kokkel, cocle, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a diminutive of Middle English cokke, cok (“cockle”), from Old English cocc (found in sǣcocc (“cockle”)) + -le; or perhaps from Old French coquille, from Vulgar Latin *cocchilia, from conchylia, from Ancient Greek κογχύλιον (konkhúlion), diminutive of κογχύλη (konkhúlē, “mussel”), of Pre-Greek substrate origin.

(mining, UK, Cornwall) The mineral black tourmaline or schorl.


tribute

tribute (countable and uncountable, plural tributes)

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English tribut, from Old French tribut, from Latin tributum (“tribute”, literally “a thing contributed or paid”), neuter of tributus, past participle of tribuō (“to assign, allot”), usually derived from tribus (“tribe”). See tribe.

শ্ৰদ্ধাঞ্জলি

acknowledgment of gratitude, respect or admiration; an accompanying gift

The setting of a Copper Mine upon tribute , has this difference : the Tributor is at the sole expence of digging , raising , and dressing , all the Ore that can be made merchantable

1778, William Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis: A Treatise on Minerals, Mines, and Mining […] :

1852-1866, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures
Tut-work is also employed upon the lode itself, though from the advantages generally considered to arise from the tribute system […]

(mining) A certain proportion of the mined ore, or of its value, given to the miner as payment.


cropping

Their croppings are either entirely barren or contain only a moderate amount of copper, but much richer ore is ordinarily found just above the chalcocite zone.

1905, Waldemar Lindgren, The Copper Deposits of the Clifton-Morenci District, Arizona, page 207:

The cropping of the Quincy ore-bearing bed, the equivalent of the Daly West bed, is stated to have been found at the east end of the present mine and just below the present wagon road.

1912, John Mason Boutwell, Lester Hood Woolsey, Geology and ore deposits of the Park City district, Utah, page 121:

(mining) An outcrop that is mined for the ore it contains.


ramble

An altered form (with dissimilation of mm to mb) of dialectal rammle, from Middle English *ramlen, *ramelen, frequentative of Middle English ramen (“to roam, ramble”); compare Swedish ramla (“to stumble; fall; make a noise; rumble”), Danish ramle (“to stumble; collapse; thunder; boom”); equivalent to roam + -le.
"mid-15 c., perhaps frequentative of 'romen' 'to walk, go' perhaps via 'romblen' (late 14 c.) 'to ramble.' The vowel change perhaps by influence of Middle Dutch 'rammelen,' a derivative of 'rammen' 'copulate,' 'used of the night wanderings of the amorous cat.' Meaning 'to talk or write incoherently' is from 1630s".

cog

(mining) A bed of shale over the seam of coal.


paddock

The noun is almost certainly a variant of dialectal British parrock (“enclosure; park; croft, small field, paddock”), from Middle English parrok, parrock (“enclosed pasture, paddock; coop; feeding stall; cabin, hut”) [and other forms], from Old English pearroc, pearruc (“fence used to enclose a space; area enclosed by such a fence, enclosure”), from Proto-West Germanic *parruk (“enclosure; pen for animals”), from Proto-Germanic *parrukaz (“fence; enclosure”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *barō (“bar, beam; barrier”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”). Doublet of park.
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Danish park (“pond”)
* Dutch perk (“flowerbed; garden; pen”)
* German Pferch (“sheepfold, sheep-pen”)

cog

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, mining) A place in a superficial deposit where ore or washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) is excavated; also, a place for storing ore, washdirt, etc.

koekuoppa

place in a superficial deposit where ore or washdirt is excavated; place for storing ore, washdirt, etc.


paddock

en-verb

paddock (third-person singular simple present paddocks, present participle paddocking, simple past and past participle paddocked)

term-label

(transitive, chiefly Australia, New Zealand)

paddocks (present singular third-person)
paddocking (participle present)
paddocked (participle past)
paddocked (past)

(also intransitive) To excavate washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) from (a superficial deposit).

kaivaa koekuopasta

to excavate washdirt from (a superficial deposit)

(obsolete) To store (ore, washdirt, etc.) in a paddock (noun sense 2.5).


bully

en-noun

bully (countable and uncountable, plural bullies)

From 1530, as a term of endearment, probably a diminutive ( + -y) of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”), from Middle Dutch boel, boele (“brother; lover”), from Old Dutch *buolo, from Proto-Germanic *bōlô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English Bōla, Bōlla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *bō- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian bālinš (“brother”). More at boy.
The term acquired a negative connotation during the 17th century; first ‘noisy, blustering fellow’ then ‘a person who is cruel to others’. Possibly influenced by bull (“male cattle”) or via the ‘prostitute's minder’ sense. The positive senses are dated, but survive in phrases such as bully pulpit.

onomatopoeic

expressive


tying

From Middle English tiȝing, teing, from Old English *tīgung, tīging (“connection”), from Proto-Germanic *taugungō, from *taugijaną from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to tug, draw”). Equivalent to tie + -ing. Present participle from Old English tīgende, from tīgan, tīegan.

der

(mining) The act or process of washing ores in a buddle.


flotation

en-noun

flotation (countable and uncountable, plural flotations)

chemical engineering
chemical engineering

(mining, chemical engineering) A process of separating minerals by agitating a mixture with water and detergents etc; selected substances being carried to the surface in air bubbles.


depressant

depressant (countable and uncountable, plural depressants)

(mining) An agent that inhibits the flotation of a mineral or minerals.


recovery

recovery (countable and uncountable, plural recoveries)

From Middle English recoveree, from Old French recovree, from recovrer (“recover”).

(mining) The extraction of an ore from a mine, or of a metal from an ore


caver

(mining, obsolete) One who works the tailings of a mine to extract small pieces of marketable ore.


pothole

From dialectal pot (“pit, hollow, cavity”) + hole. The "cave" senses, attested since at least 1809 (as pot-hole), may be from Middle English pot, potte (“a deep hole for a mine, or from peat-digging”), of uncertain origin; perhaps related to English pit, pote, or pot. Compare Scots pott, patt (“a pit dug in the ground; coalpit”).

(Australia, mining) A shallow hole dug for the purpose of prospecting for opal or gold.


lode

Doublet of load, which has however become semantically restricted. The now-archaic lode continues the old sense of Old English lād (“way, course, journey”) but by the 19th century survived only dialectally in the sense of “watercourse”, as a technical term in mining, and in the compounds lodestone, lodestar.

inh

The metals traditionally sought in the Bristol Bay region have been gold and copper, mostly in deposits near Lake Iliamna. An exception is a gold lode discovered about 1930 near Sleitat Mountain (4), where about $200 in gold was recovered from small quartz veins near the periphery of a small granitic intrusive body.

1967, Henry C. Berg, Edward Huntington Cobb, Metalliferous Lode Deposits of Alaska, page 14:

(mining) A vein of metallic ore that lies within definite boundaries, or within a fissure.


selvage

en-noun

selvage (countable and uncountable, plural selvages)

From early modern Dutch selfegghe (Modern Dutch zelfkant (“selvage”)), equivalent to self + edge.

(mining) That part of a lode adjacent to the walls on either side.


tailgate

Coordinate term: maingate

(mining) A tunnel for drawing spent air away from the working face of a mine.


hurrier

(UK, obsolete, mining) A child employed in a coal mine to drag baskets or small wagons full of coal from the coal face where it was mined, up to the surface.


nether

Alteration of earlier nither, from Middle English nitheren, from Old English niþerian (“to depress, abase, bring low, humiliate, oppress, accuse, condemn”), from niþer (“below, beneath, down, downwards, lower, in an inferior position”). See above.

inh

(mining) A trouble; a fault or dislocation in a seam of coal.


Davy lamp

Named for its inventor, Sir Humphry Davy.

(mining, historical) A miners' lamp or safety lamp used in coal mines to prevent explosions.


haulier

From Middle English halyer, haliere, halere, equivalent to haul + -ier.

(mining) A miner who hauls coal from the coalface to the bottom of the shaft.


airhead

From air + head (“foremost, topmost, or leading part”), sense 1 (“area of hostile territory seized for use as an airbase”) by analogy with beachhead and bridgehead.

compound

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-airhead.wav

[T]he mine then becomes exposed to the most fearful results, where the workings have been opened, by the Air being driven backwards along the Airhead into the reservoirs of Gas formed in the upper cavities of the workings, and issuing into the Gate-road charged with the Gas to the firing point, causing an explosion, of which many familiar instances might be adduced.

1851 April 23, Benjamin Gibbons, “On the Ventilation of Mines”, in Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Proceedings, Birmingham: Published by the Institution [of Mechanical Engineers], […], →OCLC, page 13:

(mining, archaic) Alternative form of air-head (“a horizontal channel providing ventilation in a mine.”)


slant

Late Middle English, from a variant of the earlier form dialectical slent, from Old Norse or another North Germanic source, cognate with Old Norse slent, Swedish slinta (“to slip”), Norwegian slenta (“to fall on the side”), from Proto-Germanic *slintaną. Probably influenced by aslant.

kalteva lokero

depression with sloping bottom to hold watercolors

(mining) A run: a heading driven diagonally between the dip and strike of a coal seam.


clearer

(mining) An unskilled labourer who clears away the rubbish etc.


spurn

From Middle English spurnen, spornen, from Old English spurnan (“to strike against, kick, spurn, reject; stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *spurnaną (“to tread, kick, knock out”), from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-.
Cognate with Scots spurn (“to strike, push, kick”), German spornen (“to spur on”), Icelandic sporna, spyrna (“to kick”), Latin spernō (“despise, distain, scorn”). Related to spur and spread.

cog

(mining) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.


jamb

From Middle English jambe, jaumbe, from Old French jambe (“leg”), from Late Latin gamba (“hock, shank, leg, thigh”), from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ, “turning post, bend or flexure”). Doublet of gam, gamb, gamba, and jambe.

der

(mining) Any thick mass of rock that prevents miners from following the lode or vein.


trepan

en-verb

trepan (third-person singular simple present trepans, present participle trepanning or trepaning, simple past and past participle trepanned or trepaned)

trepans (present singular third-person)
trepanning (participle present)
trepaning (participle present)
trepanned (participle past)
trepanned (past)
trepaned (participle past)
trepaned (past)

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trepan, from Latin trepanum, from Ancient Greek τρύπανον (trúpanon, “auger, borer”). Doublet of trephine.

der

(transitive, manufacturing, mining) To create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material remaining by less expensive means.


sluice

From Middle English sluse, alteration of scluse, from Anglo-Norman escluse (“sluice, floodgate”), from Late Latin exclusa (“extrusion, gate”), from Latin exclūsus, form of exclūdō (“I shut out, I exclude”) (English exclude). Cognate to Dutch sluis.

(mining) A long box or trough through which water flows, used for washing auriferous earth.


cal

(mining, archaic, UK, dialect, Cornwall) wolfram, an ore of tungsten.


stopping

(mining) A partition or door to direct or prevent a current of air.


Geordie

en-noun

Geordie (countable and uncountable, plural Geordies)

(mining, obsolete) A pitman who works in a coal mine.


plumming

(mining) The operation of finding, by means of a mine dial (compass), the place where to sink an air shaft, or to bring an adit to the work, or to find which way the lode inclines.


tippler

From tipple + -er (“agent”). “Seller” sense from 1396; “drinker” sense from 1580.


straddle

As a verb, attested since the 1560s. Most likely, an alteration of dialectal striddle. The noun is first attested in the 1610s.

(mining) A vertical mine-timber supporting a set.


shamble

From Middle English schambyll, shamyll, schamel, from Old English sċeamol, scamol (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil, from Proto-Germanic *skamulaz, *skamilaz, from Latin scamellum, a variant of scabellum (“footstool”). Cognate with Dutch schemel (“footstool, bench”), German Schemel (“stool”), Danish skammel (“stool”). Icelandic skemill (“footstool”).

(mining) One of a succession of niches or platforms, one above another, to hold ore which is thrown successively from platform to platform, and thus raised to a higher level.


crut

(mining) A cross-measure tunnel or drift.


crut

en-verb

crut (third-person singular simple present cruts, present participle crutting, simple past and past participle crutted)

cruts (present singular third-person)
crutting (participle present)
crutted (participle past)
crutted (past)


tailings

(mining) The waste that remains after the minerals have been extracted from an ore by ore dressing.


tossing

If it is necessary buddle the Tin over again , after it is sifted ( which is the best method for cleansing most sorts of Tin , for there may lie a rough waste , that will not come off by tossing and packing ) then buddle it over again

(mining) The process of washing ores by violent agitation in water, in order to separate the lighter or earthy particles; tozing.


growan

en-noun

growan (countable and uncountable, plural growans)

Compare Armorican grouan (“gravel”), Cornish grow (“gravel, sand”).

(UK, mining) A decomposed granite, forming a mass of gravel, as in tin lodes in Cornwall.


depletion

depletion (countable and uncountable, plural depletions)

Borrowed from Latin depletio, depletionem, from depleō.

stimulated emission depletion microscope

stimulated emission depletion microscopy

(accounting, mining, timber, petroleum) gradual expense or use of natural resources over time.


activator

continuous erythropoietin receptor activator

(mining) An agent that enables the flotation of a mineral or minerals.


collaring

collaring (countable and uncountable, plural collarings)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-collaring.wav

(mining) A piece of wood or iron for securing the pumps in a mineshaft.


prill

Unknown. OED mentions Cornish pryl (“sheep-droppings”) as a likely loan from English.


Dudley

From Old English, literally "wood or clearing of Dudda (a personal name of unknown meaning)".

[…] miner dreamt of the day when he could throw away his Dudley and his pit boots.

1983, Official Report of the Standing Committees: Session, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, page 77:

(mining) A miner's container for water for drinking.


ribbed

(mining) intercalated with slate; said of a seam of coal.


prospect

en-verb

prospect (third-person singular simple present prospects, present participle prospecting, simple past and past participle prospected)

prospects (present singular third-person)
prospecting (participle present)
prospected (participle past)
prospected (past)

From Latin prospectus, past participle of prospicere (“to look forward”), from pro (“before, forward”) + specere, spicere (“to look, to see”), equivalent to pro- + -spect. Doublet of prospectus.

(geology, mining) To determine which minerals or metals are present in a location.

проучвам

to determine which minerals or metals are present in a location


headsman

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-headsman.wav

From Middle English heddysman, equivalent to head + -s- + -man. Cognate with Scots hedisman, heidisman (“head man; chief; commander”). Compare also Danish høvedsmand (“captain”), Swedish hövitsman (“captain”), Icelandic höfuðsmaður (“captain”), German Hauptmann (“captain”).

(mining, historical) A labourer in a colliery who transports the coal from the workings to the horseway, and who is oftentimes assisted by a younger worker called a foal.


dropper

(mining) A branch vein which drops off from, or leaves, the main lode.


stempel

Borrowed from Low German Stempel or Dutch stempel, akin to Old English stempan (“to stamp”), all from Proto-West Germanic *stampōn, from Proto-Germanic *stampōną (“to compress, squeeze, stamp”).

der

(mining) A shelf set into a mineshaft for storing waste material, or for use as a step or support.


pricking

en-noun

pricking (countable and uncountable, plural prickings)

No better material can be used than seggar or underclay prickings

1906, George Mitcheson Bailes, Modern Mining Practice:


cathead

The noun is derived from cat + head.
Sense 1.1 (“heavy piece of timber projecting from a ship on which an anchor is raised or lowered, and secured”) is from the fact that such a timber traditionally had a cat or lion’s head carved on its end. Sense 4 (“short for cathead biscuit”) is apparently from the fact that the biscuit is similar in size to a cat’s head.
The verb is derived from the noun.

(technology, chiefly mining) A (small) capstan (“vertical cylindrical machine that revolves on a spindle, used to apply force to cables, ropes, etc.”) or windlass (“type of winch”) forming part of hoisting machinery.


grubstake

I've been through hell. The other three are all at work and healthy, getting grub-stake to prospect up White River this winter.

1918, Jack London, Like Argus of the Ancient Times:

(mining) Money, materials, tools, food etc. provided to a prospector in return for a share in future profits.


splint

From Middle English splint, splent, splente, from Middle Low German splinte, splente or Middle Dutch splint, splinte. Cognate with Old High German splinza (“bar, bolt, latch”). All ultimately from Proto-Germanic *splintǭ, *splintō (“piece of wood, splinter”), from Proto-Germanic *splint-, *splind- (“to split”), from a nasalized form of *splītaną (“to split”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”).


cobbing

en-noun

cobbing (countable and uncountable, plural cobbings)

It is, therefore, always so arranged that the dressing progresses gradually through all the operations, beginning in the mine and ending with the cobbing, or, as the case may be. with the concentration.

1868, Guido Küstel, A Treatise on Concentration of All Kinds of Ores, page 28:

To-day, however, cobbing is still an important operation, carried out with a three-fold purpose: first, to separate pure masses of different minerals from one another and from adhereing pieces of gangue, preparing them at once for the market with qa minimum loss from comminution; secondly, to separate several classes of crussing ores according to the predominance of one or the other of the different minerals they contains; and lastly, to produce a classification according to the nature of the gangue.

1884, Wheaton Bradish Kunhardt, The Practice of Ore Dressing in Europe, page 19:

Wheeler provides greater detail on ore treatment, such as traditional cobbing and sorting methods.

2018, Hailian Chen, Zinc for Coin and Brass, page 458:

(mining) The manual separation of minerals in ore using a hammer.


jigging

(mining) The act of using a jig; the act of separating ore with a jigger, or wire-bottomed sieve, which is moved up and down in water.


lum

Borrowed from Scots lum, Early Scots lumb; further etymology uncertain, possibly from Old French lum (“light”) (compare French lumière (“light; cavity or channel within a tube or tubular organ, lumen; opening”)), from Latin lūmen (“light; light source; opening through which light can penetrate such as an air-hole or window; opening or orifice in a water-pipe or funnel”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”). The word is possibly also related to Welsh llumon (“chimney”) (obsolete).

der

A chimney; also, the top part of a chimney.

(specifically, mining) A ventilating chimney over the shaft of a mine.


costean

From Cornish cothas (“dropped”) + stean (“tin”).

(mining) A trench in solid rock intersected by pits which reveals mineral veins.


costean

en-verb

costean (third-person singular simple present costeans, present participle costeaning, simple past and past participle costeaned)

costeans (present singular third-person)
costeaning (participle present)
costeaned (participle past)
costeaned (past)

(mining) To search for lodes by sinking small pits through the superficial deposits to the solid rock, and then driving from one pit to another across the direction of the vein, so as to cross all the veins between the two pits.


wagoner

(mining) One who transports the mined material away from the face in wagons.


brakeman

(mining, historical) A person employed to work the steam engine or other machinery that raises the coal from the mine.


screener

(mining, historical) A person employed to filter the mined coal through a metal screen to remove impurities.


farmor

(mining) An owner of oil or gas leases that exchanges part of them to a farmee for services.


cuddy

Uncertain. Perhaps a contraction from Dutch kajuit (“cabin”).

(UK, mining) A pony that works in a mine.


firedamp

en-noun

firedamp (usually uncountable, plural firedamps)

From fire + damp with 'damp' not in the usual sense of 'moist' but old German, modern Dutch, Danish 'damp' as steam or vapour, hence a gas liable to catch fire.

(mining) An inflammable gas (mostly methane) found in coal mines; forms an explosive mixture with air.


bandsman

(mining, historical) A labourer (loader) working with a band of men.


horse

horse (countable and uncountable, plural horses)

→ Maori: hōiho

→ Sranan Tongo: asi

→ Quiripi: hosses (from the plural horses)

From Middle English horse, hors, from Old English hors (“horse”), from Proto-West Germanic *hors, *hross, from Proto-Germanic *hrussą (“horse”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (“vehicle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of car. Cognate with North Frisian hors (“horse”), West Frisian hoars (“horse”), Dutch ros, hors (“horse”), German Ross (“horse”), Danish hors (“horse”), Swedish russ, hors (“horse”), Icelandic hross, hors (“horse”).

a camel is a horse designed by a committee

a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse

close the barn door after the horse has bolted

close the stable door after the horse has been stolen

close the stable door after the horse has bolted

lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen

lock the stable door after the horse has bolted

shut the stable door after the horse has bolted

you can't put the shit back in the horse

zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse

Also Horse harness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

See Horse-drawn vehicles on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Note: Many of these were adapted into and/or gave their names to motor vehicle types

with the horse-drawn originals often being forgotten.

(mining) A mass of earthy matter, or rock of the same character as the wall rock, occurring in the course of a vein, as of coal or ore; hence, to take horse (said of a vein) is to divide into branches for a distance.


thirl

From Middle English thirl, thiril, from Old English þyrel (“hole”), from Proto-West Germanic *þurhil, from Proto-Germanic *þurhilą (“hole, opening”), from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂kʷelo- which is *tr̥h₂kʷe + *-lo (equivalent to through + -le) from *terh₂-. Related to thrill, drill.

inh

(mining, possibly obsolete) A short communication between adits in a mine.

(mining, possibly obsolete) A long adit in a coalpit.


thirl

en-verb

thirl (third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled)

thirls (present singular third-person)
thirling (participle present)
thirled (participle past)
thirled (past)

From Middle English thirlen, thurlen, thorlen, from Old English þȳrlian (“to pierce”), from the noun (see above). Doublet of thrill.

(transitive, mining, obsolete) To drill or bore; to cut through, as a partition between one working and another.


mullock

en-noun

mullock (usually uncountable, plural mullocks)

(Australia, New Zealand, mining) Mining waste or ore processing waste:

(Australia, New Zealand, mining) Overburden: waste material generated while searching for minerals or while mining, such as when sinking a shaft.

1875, New Zealand House of Representatives, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, Volume 2, page 30,
The gold, both in the quartz and mullock, is very fine, and, owing to the soft and ferruginous nature of the stuff, specks can but very rarely be seen during working.

He stopped and took up a handful of mullock. The stones clattered on the coffin; the mud remained in his hand.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter X, in Capricornia, page 167:

On certain days, when hot currents shimmered off Oyster's Reef, we would detect the chalk-dust of the mullock heaps, acrid; or, from the opal mines themselves, the ghastly fug of the tunnels and shafts.

1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 4:

The company is considering a site at Mandurang Valley and two others near its mine in Kangaroo Flat, south-west of Bendigo, for a mullock heap that could reach 21 metres over 25 years.

2003 October 15, “Public to Have a Say on Waste Dumping”, in ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

(Australia, New Zealand, mining) Tailings: waste rock from which the wanted gold, minerals, opal, etc., has been extracted.


mullock

en-verb

mullock (third-person singular simple present mullocks, present participle mullocking, simple past and past participle mullocked)

mullocks (present singular third-person)
mullocking (participle present)
mullocked (participle past)
mullocked (past)

(transitive, mining) To clear waste material out of a mine.


inbye

From Middle English [Term?], equivalent to in + by.

An upcast fault is when the seam is thrown up; to counteract this a "canch" of top stone must be taken down outbye over from the fault, and a "canch" of bottom stone taken up inbye over from the fault, then level up to the bottom of your "canch" at the foreside of the hitch outbye over until you have a regular gradient to the seam on the hitch.

1879, William Bailes, Student's Guide to the Principles of Coal & Metal Mining, page 17:

(mining) Pertaining to the direction towards the coal face.


outbye

From Middle English outby, outbi, equivalent to out (adverb) + by (adverb).

(mining) In the direction away from the coal face.


blackwash

en-noun

blackwash (countable and uncountable, plural blackwashes)

From black + -wash or black + wash (depending on sense).

(slang, mining) Public campaigns and advertising funded by the coal industry to draw attention away from environmentally unsustainable practices or to justify exclusion from carbon taxes.


thirling

From Middle English thurlunge, from Old English þȳrlung (“piercing”), verbal noun of þȳrlian (“to pierce”). Equivalent to thirl + -ing.

(Northern England, mining) In lead-mining, a mark indicating the termination of a set or pitch


crosscut

(mining) A tunnel or level driven across the course of a vein, or across the main workings, as from one gangway to another through the country rock.


openwork

openwork (countable and uncountable, plural openworks)


smasher

smasher (countable and uncountable, plural smashers)

Something that, or someone who, smashes.

(mining, historical) A person employed to break up waste rock.


stope

en-verb

stope (third-person singular simple present stopes, present participle stoping, simple past and past participle stoped)

stopes (present singular third-person)
stoping (participle present)
stoped (participle past)
stoped (past)

Apparently related to step, but with uncertain phonological development. Perhaps from a German Low German word like Stoop (“step”), from Middle Low German stōpe (“step”). More at stoop.

(mining) To excavate in the form of stopes.

(mining) To fill in with rubbish, as a space from which the ore has been worked out.


bottomer

(mining) A person employed to attend to the bottom of the shaft.


geoengineering

(engineering, mining) The subfield of engineering concerned with designing and constructing tunnels, mines, and other human-designed geologic structures within and on earth.


concentrator

(mining) An apparatus for the separation of dry comminuted ore, by exposing it to intermittent puffs of air.


keeve

From Middle English kive, from Old English cȳf (“vat”), from Proto-West Germanic *kūbiju, a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *kūbaz, perhaps from Latin cūpa. Related to French cuve. Doublet of coupe, cup, and hive.

(mining) A large vat used in dressing ores.


pay dirt

(mining) Earth which contains profitable quantities of ore.


saucisse

Borrowed from French saucisse (“sausage”). Doublet of sausage.

(mining, firearms) A long and slender pipe or bag, made of cloth well pitched, or of leather, filled with powder, and used to communicate fire to mines, caissons, bomb chests, etc.


trimmer

(mining, historical) A device for storing coal in gradually increasing piles made by building up at the point of the cone or top of the prism.


holing

(mining) undercutting in a bed of coal in order to bring down the upper mass.


lofting

en-noun

lofting (countable and uncountable, plural loftings)

(mining) Lagging or longitudinal timber resting on caps to support the roof of a working.


lacing

(mining) Lagging, or cross-pieces placed to prevent ore from falling into a passage.


shearing

shearing (countable and uncountable, plural shearings)

From Middle English scherynge; equivalent to shear + -ing.

(mining) The process of making a vertical side cutting in working into a face of coal.


prilled

Availability of NH₄⁺ N in the surface soil (0-15 cm) was initially lower from deep-placed USG compared with prilled urea split and neem-coated urea, but increased up to 45 d after transplanting (Patel et al 1989).

1998, S. K. Mohanty, U. Singh, V. Balasubramanian, K. P. Jha, “Nitrogen placement technologies for productivity, profitability, and environmental quality of rainfed lowland rice system”, in V. Balasubramanian, J. K. Ladha, G. L. Denning, editors, Resource Management in Rice Systems: Nutrients, page 61:

(mining, manufacturing and agriculture) formed into pellets


borrasca

(mining) A mine that is no longer producing profitably.


tye

Inherited from Middle English teye (“chest, coffer”), from a combination of Old English tēah and Old French teie (both "chest").

inh+

But if each Ore is of equal gravit , and I apprehend some poor Tin Ore, which they call dry for Metal, may be less ponderous than Copper Ore) if the tye will not separate them, they should be first cleansed[…]

1778, William Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis:


chokedamp

en-noun

chokedamp (usually uncountable, plural chokedamps)

"Now, when you described the Wigan coal explosion last month, could you not have gone down and helped those people, in spite of the choke-damp?" "I did." "You never said so." "There was nothing worth bucking about." "I didn't know." She looked at me with rather more interest.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

(mining) A damp consisting chiefly of carbon dioxide, so called for its ability to asphyxiate.


shifter

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(mining, historical) A person employed to repair the horseways and other passages, and keep them unobstructed.


dyke

A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik and dike (“ditch”), from Old Norse díki (“ditch”). Influenced by Middle Dutch dijc (“ditch; dam”) and Middle Low German dīk (“dam”). See also
ditch.

(dialect, mining) A fissure in a rock stratum filled with intrusive rock; a fault.


corf

From Middle English corf, borrowed from Middle Low German korf or Middle Dutch korf, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *korb.

Why, I am simple as a pony, Sir […]?– born in a Drift, a Corf for my cradle, and nought but the Back-shift for Schoolmasters there […]?

(mining) A large basket, especially as used for coal.

hiilikori

(mining) A wooden frame, sled, or low-wheeled wagon, to convey coal or ore in the mines.


trommel

This trommel is very compact and will give four sizes of product.

1871, Rossiter W. Raymond, Mines and Mining of the Rocky Mountains, the Inland Basin, and the Pacific Slope, J. B. Ford & Company, page 697:

(mining) A revolving buddle or sieve for separating, or sizing, ores.


gumming

gumming (countable and uncountable, plural gummings)

(mining, historical) The manual removal of clay, or "gum", from cut coal.


getter

(mining, historical) A miner who dug coal, contrasted with the putter, who took it to the surface.


winze

Alteration of the plural noun winds, 1757.

The air on the 2,350-ft. level passes through the main drift, while the air from the fan on the 2,250-ft. level passes into a cross-cut and a drift east of the main drift, returns, and joins the air passing through the main drift towards the Ophir winze.

1909 George J. Young Ventilating-System at the Comstock Mines, Nevada. Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Vol. XLI 1910. (Spokane Meeting, September 1909)

A formation that is liable to fool the prospector, I found in the Oconguas district... In prospecting along the stream ... I got some rich pannings. The gold was rather angular and I decided that it had not traveled far. I proceeded up the hill... panning the manto and getting "colors" all the way up... I found a veinlet about 15 in. wide and very rich in gold. Trenching along its outcrop showed that it extended about 100 ft. and then pinched out altogether. A winze sunk on the veinlet showed that it "petered out" entirely at 25 or 30 ft. Further work showed that small veinlets of this kind ran through the porphyry, and that the gold in the manto and the stream came from these elos, as the Nicaraguans call them, and not from a large, well-defined vein, such as I had hoped to find. Although I got remarkably rich pannings from the hill, the discovery was of no economic importance.

1910 T. Lane Carter: Mining in Nicaragua. Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Vol. XLI. 1910. Canal Zone Meeting, October, 1910

(mining) A steep shaft for such purposes as: to join two levels in a mine; or to explore greater depths when considering whether to open a new level; or to permit forced ventilation of deeper levels.


nicking

(mining) The cutting made by the hewer at the side of the face.


noodler

(Australia, mining) A fossicker, someone who scours mine dumps for valuables.


swad

(mining) A thin layer of refuse at the bottom of a seam.


knits

Probably the same word as nit, a louse's egg.


lew

en-verb

lew (third-person singular simple present lews, present participle lewing, simple past and past participle lewed)

lews (present singular third-person)
lewing (participle present)
lewed (participle past)
lewed (past)

Cornwall... The fine [sc. tin] is lewed in a fine sierce.

1674, John Ray, A Collection of English Words, Not Generally Used, page 122:

(mining, dialect, transitive) Alternative form of lue: to sift, particularly while mining tin or silver.


smeddum

From earlier smitham, smytham, from Middle English smedma, from Old English smedma, smeodema, smedema (“fine flour, pollen meal, meal”).


petanque

en-noun

petanque (countable and uncountable, plural petanques)

First-discovered mine in the District; gave much "petanque" (stephanite, or silver glance).

1883, Charles Bunker Dahlgren, Historic Mines of Mexico:

There are other openings on the ledge between the ends of these claims, but all are small and filled with debris, but it is an interesting and notable fact that all the workings show the rich sulphide of silver, or petanque ore […]

1902, Reports Mining Engineers, Cieneguita Copper Company, page 26:

Petanque, or "gray copper ore" (tetrahedrite) is the sort for which the Mexican prospector is constantly on the lookout.

1906, Engineering and Mining Journal, volume 82, page 629:

(mining, dated, countable, uncountable) Any of various ores, including forms of silver sulfide (such as stephanite) and the copper ore tetrahedrite.


beneficiate

en-verb

beneficiate (third-person singular simple present beneficiates, present participle beneficiating, simple past and past participle beneficiated)

beneficiates (present singular third-person)
beneficiating (participle present)
beneficiated (participle past)
beneficiated (past)

From Spanish beneficiar (“to benefit, to work mines”).


swallet

Compare German Schwall (“a sea swell”), from schwellen (“to swell”). See English swell.

(UK, dialect, dated, mining, tin mining) Water breaking in upon the miners at their work.


rejig

en-verb

rejig (third-person singular simple present rejigs, present participle rejigging, simple past and past participle rejigged)

rejigs (present singular third-person)
rejigging (participle present)
rejigged (participle past)
rejigged (past)

The verb is derived from re- (prefix meaning ‘again, anew’) + jig (“to move briskly; to move with jerks or vibrations”). The noun is derived from the verb.

prefix

(mining) To separate or sort (ore) again in a jigger or sieve.

seuloa uudelleen

to separate or sort (ore) again in a jigger or sieve


gob up

en-verb

gob up (third-person singular simple present gobs up, present participle gobbing up, simple past and past participle gobbed up)

gobs up (present singular third-person)
gobbing up (participle present)
gobbed up (participle past)
gobbed up (past)

Packers did the packing and stopping ; they were employed to pack up at nights. I cannot give you names, because we were changing every week. I think one man's name was William Abraham. They came in with the rubbish every night to gob up.

1879, Great Britain Parliament House of Commons, Reports from Commissioners - Volume 18, page 24:

There is no waste dump at the surface, and none of the contents of the lode as yet broken down have been so poor in silver as to be thrown away or used for gobbing up.

1885, Samuel Franklin Emmons, George Ferdinand Becker, Statistics and Technology of the Precious Metals:

Attempts have been made on several occasions to avoid the digging out by gobbing up the roads in the district and putting stoppings at intervals, the treatment being extended for 100 yards or more.

1913, John Harger, Coal, and the prevention of explosions and fires in mines, page 161:

Wider pillars usually provided better security for stalls and headings and when an area was worked out they might be "robbed" of additional coal before the stalls were finally abandoned and packed up ("gobbed up") with waste.

2004, Martin R. Connop Price, Pembrokeshire: the forgotten coalfield, →ISBN:

(mining) To pack or fill with waste material.


check weigher

(mining, historical) A person employed by the miners to check the weight of the mined material and thus ensure the proper wages were paid.


pentice

From Middle English pentis, pendize, and other spellings; from Anglo-Norman pentiz, aphetic of Old French apentis (“appendage, attached building”), from Medieval Latin appendicium, from Latin appendo (“to hang”). Doublet of appentice and penthouse.

der

(mining) An unexcavated portion of a shaftway, intended to afford protection from falling debris to workers at the bottom of the shaft during certain stages of mining.


thill

From Middle English thille, thylle, from Old English þille (“board; floorboard; plank; stake; pole”), from Proto-West Germanic *þilljā, from Proto-Germanic *þiljǭ (“board; floorboard; deck”), from Proto-Indo-European *tel- (“plank; board”). Cognate with Dutch deel, German Low German Deel (> English deal (“plank”)), German Diele, Swedish tilja, Icelandic þilja. Akin to English theal (“board; plank”). Doublet of deal.

der

One by one, Janki leading, they crept into the old gallery – a six-foot way with a scant four feet from thill to roof.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘At Twenty-two’, In Black and White, Folio Society, published 2005, page 405:

(mining) The shallow stratum of underclay that lies under a seam of coal; the bottom of a coal-seam.


spad

(mining) A nail one or two inches long, of iron, brass, tin, or tinner iron, with a hole through the flattened head, used to mark stations in underground surveying.


fourneau

en-noun

fourneau (plural fourneaus or fourneaux)

The quantity of powder to charge the fourneau depends on the density and tenacity of the soil in which it is to be made

1809, Louis de Tousard, American Artillerist's Companion:

(mining, archaic) The chamber of a mine in which the powder is placed.


gobbing

This objection , however , applies still more to the case of a road which has solid on one side , and gobbing on the other.

1850, John Phillips, Report on the Ventilation of Mines and Collieries:

(mining) The refuse thrown back into the excavation after removing the coal; gob stuff.


stowing

stowing (usually uncountable, plural stowings)

To render these stoppings effective, they must be built of brick or stone, and plastered with lime, and also supported at one or both sides by stowings of rubbish to provide against the effect of explosions.

1848, Matthias Dunn, A treatise on the winning and working of collieries:

(mining) A method of working in which the waste is packed into the space formed by excavating the vein.


iron ore

iron ore (countable and uncountable, plural iron ores)

(mining) A mineral deposit from which iron can be viably extracted.


underlayer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underlayer.wav

(mining) A perpendicular shaft sunk to cut the lode at any required depth.