January 6, 2015

5 things about the word "job."

1. The oldest usage is a verb, meaning to peck or poke or stab at. Early examples recorded in the OED: "The Tool will job into softer parts of the Stuff," "Mendoza jobbed his opponent in the throat, who fell, evincing great weakness." High-tone modern example from classy novelist Thomas Pynchon affecting an old-timey speech pattern: "If you dare to leave your lawful wife, tonight or ever, this’ waving the Fork, ‘gets jobb'd in your Guts, are we in Agreement’?"

2. The noun originally appears in the phrase "a job of work," so the word "job" functioned to refer to a subcategory of whatever the work was. From 1557/8: "Doinge certen Iobbes of woorke." Early on, criminals used the word to refer to individual crimes. From 1690: "She rode about seven-miles farther, and then a Stage Coach she did Rob; The Passengers all cry'd out Murther: but this was a Fifty-pound Iobb." (Read the whole thing here: "The Female Frollick: OR, An Account of a young Gentlewoman, who went upon the Road to rob in Man’s Cloaths, well mounted on a Mare, &c..")

3. The boring meaning to which we present-day Americans gravitate — as discussed in the previous post — is (OED): "A paid position of regular employment, a post, a situation; an occupation, a profession." This is the meaning in the common phrase "Get a job." The OED gives us this quote from "American Speech" in 1858: "But when he gets a good fat job For dat am all he cares." Hmm. They don't transliterate speech like that anymore. I rankled at the racism (that I can only guess is there).

4. I'm just going to say "blow job" and "boob job" so you don't feel you have to write a comment telling me about such things.

5. What I really want to talk about — and the whole reason I'm writing this post — is:
... and by the way the Lions got jobbed on that pass interference call.  I don't care what anyone says, the Lions got jobbed on that call. Yeah, the Cowboys still won, and the Lions didn't do enough to win.  I understand all that.  I'm not saying it's a conspiracy, but they got jobbed on that call, that pass interference call where they picked up the flag.
That's Rush Limbaugh, on his show yesterday. I read that out loud to Meade, and he laughed heartily the first time I said "jobbed," which made it especially funny to hear the word 2 more times. The Lions got jobbed. According to the Urban Dictionary, "jobbed" means:
To be the victim of a conspiracy; to lose a seemingly fair contest because of deceit; to be guaranteed to lose. The term derives from the professional wrestling term "jobber."

Brett Hart was jobbed in the infamous Montreal Screwjob.
The Seahawks got jobbed in Super Bowl XL.
I note the footballcentricism of those examples.

I added the link on "jobber," going to the Urban Dictionary meaning of "jobber" that explains the role of a willing loser in wrestling. And I almost got distracted into the Beatles lyric...
Out of college, money spent
See no future, pay no rent
All the money's gone, nowhere to go
Any jobber got the sack
Monday morning, turning back
Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go
But oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go
... but I got back to where I once belonged — to point #1, above, and the OED — and felt a nice sense of closure — a blog post's worth of closure — seeing that the oldest meaning of "jobber" is a person (or thing) that pecks or pokes at something.

48 comments:

David said...

Well, they did get jobbed. And indirectly so did the Packers, since now they play the Cowboys (a very good team with a premier running back) instead of the Panthers (a mediocre team with a lesser running back.)

So it goes. You have to beat a very good team sooner or later, and the Pack gets sooner.

Laslo Spatula said...

Re: "I read that out loud to Meade, and he laughed heartily the first time I said "jobbed..."

I always took this as a reference to the Biblical Job, where bad things seem to fall unfairly by a Higher Power.

In other words: Job got 'jobbed'.

I am Laslo.

Bob Ellison said...

A fishmonger near me uses "jobber" to describe someone who goes to the port where they sell seafood, picks up what looks good, and then drives it to sell to people away from the sea.

Jason said...

You left out "rimjob."

And I'm not even Laslo.

Meade said...

Job Bush.

Ann Althouse said...

"A fishmonger near me uses "jobber" to describe someone who goes to the port where they sell seafood, picks up what looks good, and then drives it to sell to people away from the sea."

Yes, that's an old meaning. OED has: "A person who buys and sells goods as a middleman or dealer; a small trader or salesman; a wholesaler." The oldest usage is from 1647.

There's also "A person who does odd jobs or small pieces of work; a person hired to do a particular job or employed by the job. Also: a hack; a journeyman, a dabbler." That's what I think the Beatles lyric is referring to.

1903 P. W. Joyce Social Hist. Anc. Ireland I. v. 162 [There] were herdsmen, labourers, squatters on waste lands, horse-boys, hangers-on, and jobbers of various kinds—all poor and dependent.

traditionalguy said...

The 1919 World Series got jobbed. An outside financial influence took secret control of what was presented as a fair contest.

That is why "crony capitalism" is so frustrating. Business is NOT competitive when the fix is in at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

But Athletic competition was seen as the last place a reality contest was still possible.

But after watching what was innocently done to the Detroit Lions and TCU Horned Frogs this year, it seems Athletic outcomes are also jobbed for the most influential cronies.

Anonymous said...

Not seeing it. Online Etymology Dictionary says :

job (n.) 1550s, in phrase jobbe of worke "piece of work" (contrasted with continuous labor), of uncertain origin, perhaps a variant of gobbe "mass, lump" (c.1400; see gob) via sense of "a cart-load." Sense of "work done for pay" first recorded 1650s. Thieves' slang sense of "theft, robbery, a planned crime" is from 1722. Printing sense is from 1795. Slang meaning "specimen, thing, person" is from 1927.
job. (1) A low mean lucrative busy affair. (2) Petty, piddling work; a piece of chance work. [Johnson's Dictionary]
On the job "hard at work" is from 1882. Job lot is from obsolete sense of "cartload, lump," which might also ultimately be from gob. Job security attested by 1954; job description by 1920; job-sharing by 1972.

I've always thought job used in the sense you are displaying was a perversion of the word "jab."

Or maybe (more in line with your original theme) it is someone paid to "do a job" on someone else. That makes sense if you think the refs were completing a task (i.e., bad calls) for one team.

Steve said...

Brett Hart was a professional wrestler. The Montreal Screwjob was Vince McMahon screwing Brett out of the WWF Belt before he left for the WCW. They had agreed to a draw and McMahon order the referee to call the match as a loss for Hart.

Of course there is the theory that Hart and McMahon cooked the whole thing up to give them both additional publicity.

Bob Ellison said...

"jobber" seems similar to tinker.

Most of us are jobbers and tinkers.

Ann Althouse said...

"Not seeing it. Online Etymology Dictionary says..."

Not sure what "it" you're not seeing, but my "OED" refers to the famous OED, the Oxford English Dictionary, which is subscription-only site that I can't send readers to.

Anyway, the OED doesn't have that "gob" idea for "job."

Given the original spelling "IOBB," I'm guessing they come from different places. The old spellings of "gob" are "gobbe" and "gubbe." "Gob" is said to come: "Apparently < Old French gobe, goube (modern French gobbe ), a mouthful, lump, etc. (in modern French only in the special senses of a food-ball for poisoning dogs, feeding poultry, etc., and a concretion found in the stomachs of sheep), related to the verb gober to swallow: see gobbet n."

Anyway, there are some "j" and "g" substitutions in English. I think of gaol/jail and gibe/jibe.

Laslo Spatula said...

"I always took this as a reference to the Biblical Job, where bad things seem to fall unfairly by a Higher Power."

Althouse has not recognized this brilliant insight. I have been jobbed.

I am Laslo.

Anonymous said...

Brett Hart ≠ Brett Favre.

glam1931 said...

"The OED gives us this quote from "American Speech" in 1858: "But when he gets a good fat job For dat am all he cares." Hmm. They don't transliterate speech like that anymore. I rankled at the racism (that I can only guess is there)."
American Speech is a quarterly academic journal of the American Dialect Society, established in 1925 and published by Duke University Press.
I don't think it's racist to transliterate speech accurately if you're studying dialects.

Laslo Spatula said...

I also think I was jobbed by her point #4.

I am Laslo.

tim maguire said...

Interesting that the first definition of "job" roughly matches what we currently call "jab."

Most interesting to me is a possibility you raise about transliteration in point #3--could it be that we see less of this today than we used to not so much (or at least not only) because of sensitivities about racism, but also because of the relatively recent establishment of standardized spelling?

American dictionaries were first produced in the late 1700's and were still of limited influence in the mid-1800's. Prior to this standardization, you would be more likely to see spelling based on pronunciation because that is all most people had to go on. Spelling was more fluid and it wasn't considered wrong to use different spellings of the same word when there wasn't an agreed "correct" spelling.

glam1931 said...

"The OED gives us this quote from "American Speech" in 1858: "But when he gets a good fat job For dat am all he cares." Hmm. They don't transliterate speech like that anymore. I rankled at the racism (that I can only guess is there)."
American Speech is a quarterly academic journal of the American Dialect Society, established in 1925 and published by Duke University Press.
I don't think it's racist to transliterate speech accurately if you're studying dialects.

Hagar said...

a : a member of the London Stock Exchange who deals speculatively with brokers or other jobbers and usually specializes in one class of securities —called also jobber
b: (usually disparaging) stockbroker

Though I do not think the term is limited to the London Exchange.

RecChief said...

Then there is Danglars, described by Dumas as a "stock jobber" how does that fit in with your list?

chillblaine said...

It was Box's job to freeze things.

Robots don't understand the concept of compensation, so the programmers have to add a few GOTO commands in there, to keep them showing up for work.

Ron said...

This whole post and all these comments and no one mentions OddJob?
Disgraceful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65nNcNiwJHM

Big Mike said...

The Detroit Lions still had ample opportunity to win that game despite the disputable no-call. Congratulations to the Cowboys for sucking it up after spotting their opponents two touchdowns and pulling out the game. Key Lions players, and perhaps coaches, need to learn to put things like that behind them and keep pushing.

jono39 said...

And what about our whiney companion Job?

tim in vermont said...

I am going to say that the term derives from being on the receiving end of a screwjob, rather than referring to some wrestlers nobody ever heard of. Short for screwjob.

SGT Ted said...

"Job" as a word to describe a subcategory of work is still used in the auto mechanic trade.

tim in vermont said...

Of course, somebody could have just said it and it sounded right, and other people repeated, like they didn't repeat "fetch," and so, unlike "job," "fetch" never happened. Pretty much like every other word began, de novo, at some point, to fill a need. Who says this never happens in the modern era?

I never really trust any of these "just so" stories of linguistics, unless very well sourced.

FleetUSA said...

Get a Job -- The Silhouettes great song from 1957


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysKhbaLyIFw

Known Unknown said...

A jobber is also a wrestling term for an inferior opponent who repeatedly loses to other wrestlers getting a 'push.'

The lexicon of Pro Wrestling is quite interesting.

There's babyfaces and heels and jobbers and squashes and heat and cheap heat and pop and getting over and marks and smarks and works and shoots and worked shoots and and hot tags and botches and bumps and spots and dirt sheets and selling and no selling and slow burns and straps and swerves.

Bob Boyd said...

Jobsworth
A jobsworth is a person who uses their job description in a deliberately uncooperative way, or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner. "Jobsworth" is a British colloquial word deriving from the phrase "I can't do that, it's more than my job's worth", meaning it might lose the person their job

http://www.definitions.net/definition/jobsworth

Skeptical Voter said...

Ah Ms. Althouse--I can't let you get away with that hoity toity sniffing at "racist" transliteration--"they don't do that any more" etc.

What would you say if a court reporter took down the speech of your average Oakland (CA) Technical High School student speaking "Ebonics"? Would an accurate transcript of those words be "racist"? There's at least a 50-50 chance you would say "yes". [I should add that the Oakland School Superintendent called for recognition of "Ebonics" as a separate language. Of course a previous Oakland School Superintendent was murdered by one of Oakland Tech's students.]

I'll give you one more use of the word "jobber". In the petroleum marketing industry "jobber" is another term for distributor, i.e. an independent business that buys gasoline or diesel from a refiner, and in turn resells that product to a service station operator.

Ann Althouse said...

"Brett Hart ≠ Brett Favre."

LOL.

You're right. I saw "Brett" and just moved on. There's only one Brett to me, it seems.

tim in vermont said...

I am thinking now that getting "jobbed" is from wrestling. It makes sense. A guy does a job for a guy. Loses a match. Gets paid.

Guy who bet on him got "jobbed."

Achilles said...

"Jobbing"

So according to number 1 to peck or poke or stab at is that what Clinton and Epstein were doing at Epsteins parties with underage women then?

So much fun with words.

For what it is worth if you call pass interference on the Cowboys Linebacker you have to call a face mask on the Lions Tight End too.

Anonymous said...

similar, not synonymous, useable in a single sentence, and I have heard them used more or less interchangeably on occasion:

jab job

stab stob

Stephen said...

A Turkish coworker, now good friend, moved to Berkeley to get his PhD in Engineering in the early 1980's. His English was passable, but he certainly wasn't up to speed on cultural subtleties.

While driving a cab to make ends meet, he picked up an attractive woman who wanted a ride to San Francisco. Arriving at his destination, she asked him to forego the fare: "How about a blowjob?" My friend said, I already have a job!

Someone always loses his drink when hearing this for the first time.

furious_a said...

You neglected to mention the Hands-Up/Don't-Shoot-I-Can't-Breathe Brunch Rustlers, who have "no-jobs".

pdug said...

"I rankled at the racism (that I can only guess is there)."

If American Speech is a journal founded in 1925, it can't be the reference from 1858. But i wouldn't assume its racist to record black speech (if that is black speech) foneticly

Scott said...

Job was the character in the Old Testament who got fucked over by Satan on a bet with God.

Franco said...

The Cowboys (and the NFL) got jobbed on Tuesday when Suh's suspension was reversed. The defense - that Suh lost feeling in his feet -was absurd on it's face. The thugification of the NFL continues. Glad the Detroit Stompers lost.

Danno said...

Laslo Spatula said...
I also think I was jobbed by her point #4.

I am Laslo.

Ann has started practicing anticipatory blogging, and you were lazloed!

H said...

I have access to Oxford english dictionary but I don't use it as much as I should, and I always love when Althouse refers people there and points out the etymologies. (I hope that's the right word. I guess I could look it up, but, well, you know.)

Ann Althouse said...

"Stock jobbere" is the first entry for "jobber" in the OED. I left it out because i was leaving a bunch of things out and it seemed relatively digressive for this post.

Alex said...

I'm too busy having an amazing life filled with amazing experiences to do some 'job'.

mtrobertsattorney said...

What is racist about the OED's attempt to capture for the reader the sound of what was a common mode of American speech back in 1858?

khematite@aol.com said...

The 19th century lines about "the good fat job" were aimed at politicians and came from a minstrel show song, "Folks That Put on Airs." And as with so much of minstrelsy, while there's necessarily a strong racial/racist element when white people imitate black people, the matter is nonetheless more complicated than that.

As students of minstrelsy have argued (e.g., in Eric Lott's Love and Theft), the minstrel performer, speaking from the point of view of a black man, was not only poking fun at himself but in perhaps an even more profound way, at white people and their foibles. Text of the song follows:

FOLKS THAT PUT ON AIRS
Music composed by W. H. COULSTON.
Original Publication 1863 by Lee & Walker, W. H. Coulston

1.
Oh, white folks, listen, will you now,
This darkie's gwine to sing;
I've hit upon a subject now I think will be the thing.
I never like to mix at all With any one's affairs,
But my opinion am just now 'Bout folks that put on airs.

Chorus (SATB)
No use talking, No use talking,
it's go now ev'rywhere;
To do as folks of fashion do,
You've got to put on airs.

2.
De politician, first of all,
On 'lection day will stand,
And every man dat passes by,
He'll shake him by de hand.
But when he gets a good fat job,
For dat am all he cares,
He thinks himself some pumkins den;
Oh, don't he put on airs? (Chorus)

3.
When a gal gets about sixteen,
She 'gins to think she's some;
A fop dat sports a big moustache,
She kinder likes to come,
Two hours before de looking glass,
To meet him she prepares;
And when she gets her fixin's on,
Oh, don't she put on airs? (Chorus)

4.
A boy, too, when he's 'bout half grown,
Although he's "nary red."
Has lots of hair around his mouth,
But none upon his head.
He patronizes tailor shops,
Gets trust for all he wears;
And when he goes amongst de gals,
Oh, don't he put on airs. (Chorus)

5.
Dar's de great Atlantic cable,
Some time ago 'twas laid;
Both Uncle Sam and Johnny Bull
Den thought dare fortunes made.
Somehow or other, I don't know,
But folks dat hold de shares
Begin to kinder think de thing
Am puttin' on some airs. (Chorus)

6.
'Tis true we Yankees go ahead
In all we undertake;
There's Tenbroeck and great Rarey, too,
Can British horses break.
Dar's Murphy next, a chess-man he
His laurels proudly wears.
Old Johhny Bull can't come to tea,
And needn't put on airs.

lonetown said...

re: item 4, you forgot snow job.

lonetown said...

nose job?

Hazy Dave said...

A rack jobber was the guy that brought boxes of singles and albums around to record stores back in the days when such things existed in quantity. No relation to the boob job, despite the suggestive terminology.