Forms: 4 kolier, cholier, 5 colyȝere, colȝer(e, coliare, coler, 5–6 colyer, colier, (coilȝear), 6 colyar, coliar, 6–7 colliar, collyer, (8 coallier), 6– collier. [ME. colier, colyer, etc., f. col, COAL, app. after words from Fr. in -IER, q.v. The Sc. coilȝear, and other ME. spellings, imply that the o was then long; collier with short o, appears to be later: cf. COLLY a. and v.]
I. One whose occupation or trade is to procure or supply coal (formerly charcoal); one engaged in the coal trade.
† 1. A maker of wood charcoal (who also was often the bringer of it to market). Obs.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2520. Choliers þat cayreden col come þere bi side. Ibid., 2523. Þe kolieres bi komsed to karpe kenely i fere.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 87. Colyer [v.r. colyȝere, coler], carbonarius.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 321. Then the Coilȝear … Went to the Charcoill in hy, To mak his Chauffray reddy.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (1844), 328. Item to the colyer for makyng of coleys ij.s.
1550. Crowley, Epigr., 493. When none but pore Colyars dyd wyth coles mell.
1573. Art of Limming, 7. Take Hartes horne, and burne it to cole on a Coliars harth.
1608. T. Ball, in Lismore Papers, Ser. II. (1887), I. 130. To be at bristow with a reffiner and a hammer man and 8 or 10 colliers.
† 2. One who carries coal (orig. charcoal, later also pit-coal) for sale. Obs.
1479. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 425. All maner of colyers that bryngeth coleys to towne.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 86. And where as the colyers be founde false that they may be punessed and theyr sackes brent.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Gl. (Arb.), 79. When colliers put no dust into their sacks.
1661–2. Pepys, Diary, 8 Feb. All the day with the colliers removing the coles out of the old cole hole into the new one.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, IV. 198. A Collier with his Cart, that Coals was used to carry.
† b. A coal-dealer or owner. Obs.
1625. Bacon, Ess. Riches (Arb.), 235. I knew a Nobleman … A Great Timber Man, A Great Colliar, A Great Corne-Master, A Great Lead-Man.
† 3. Often used with allusion to the dirtiness of the trade in coal, or the evil repute of the collier for cheating: cf. Greene’s Coosnage of Colliers (1591). Obs.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B. (1843), 11. Smoggy colyers, and stynkynge gonge fermers.
1552. Bale, Apol., 93 (R.). As the sayinge is, lyke wyl to lyke, as the deuyl fyndeth out the colyar.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., III. iv. 130. What man, tis not for grauity to play at cherrie-pit with sathan. Hang him foul Colliar.
1622. Gataker, Sp. Watch, 67 (T.). A man shall hardly come with fair apparell amongst colliers, but he shall carry some of their soil away from them.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. ii. 350. He could transform himself in Colour As like the Devil as a Collier.
1732. in Fuller’s Gnomol. (Hazl., Eng. Prov., 1869). Like a collier’s sack, bad without, but worse within.
4. One who works in a coal-mine; a coal-miner.
1594. Newcastle Munic. Acc. (1849), 33. Paide for letting fourthe coliers at Pilgrim streete gate … earlie in the morninge to worke, 2s. per pece each on.
1665. D. Dudley, Metallum Martis (1854), 8. Colliers have gotten coles again in those same Pits.
1741–3. Wesley, Jrnl. (1749), 95. I went to Southbiddick, a village of colliers, seven miles south-east of Newcastle.
1799. Scotland Descr. (ed. 2), 198. Villages … inhabited by … coalliers and lime-burners.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Ability, Wks. (Bohn), 1881, II. 37. They are … not good in jewelry or mosaics, but the best iron-masters, colliers, wool-combers, and tanners, in Europe.
1876. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., II. iv. 147. A collier … earns more wages than a carpenter.
II. transf.
5. A ship engaged in the carriage of coal. Earlier collier-ship. Also attrib.
1625. J. Glanville, Voy. Cadiz (1883), 11. With all the Colliers or New-Castell shipps in the ffleete.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 3 Jan. The Dutch have taken some of our colliers to the North.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), III. lxxxi. 257. The ship was no other than a light collier.
1847–8. H. Miller, First Impr., xii. (1857), 202. The coal which loads a single large collier would, when it existed as wood, have built many large colliers.
b. One of the crew of such a vessel.
1727. Swift, Petition of Colliers, etc. So considerable a branch of the coasting trade, as that of the colliers.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxv. I’m an old collier.
6. The swift (Cypselus apus). dial.
1796. W. Marshall, E. Yorksh., Gloss. Collier, hirundo apus, the black swallow, or swift.
1855. in Whitby Gloss.
7. A species of Aphis; also collier-aphis, -fly.
1744–50. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandman, IV. i. 75. It’s called the Collier-fly, because it turns black.
1784. Young, Ann. Agric., II. 51. Collier, an insect, ‘the black dolphin.’
III. attrib. and Comb.: as collier-brig, -ship; collier-built adj.; collier-man, -master, the captain of a coal-ship; collier’s faith [med. Lat. fides carbonarii, Ger. köhlerglaube], uninquiring or unreasoning assent to the prevalent religious tenets; blind faith; collier’s lung, phthisis, a fibroid phthisis common with coal-workers, characterized by the deposit of carbon in a finely granular condition in the tissue of the lungs; collier-woman, a woman who works in a coal-mine.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., v. 211. The butties that knock about the poor *collier-boys.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., i. Fog creeping into the caboozes of *collier-brigs.
1878. Trelawny, Shelley, etc. (1887), 198. She was a *collier-built tub of 120 tons.
1581. Hanmer, Jesuits Banner, K ij b. Not hanging with the *Colliers fayth vpon the sleeuelesse coate of the Romish Church.
[1603. Chettle, Eng. Mourn. Garment, D iiij b. Onely of the faith that the Colliar profest, which was euer one with the most. See the story 1621 Burton, Anat. Mel. (1676), III. iv. II. vi. 419.]
1680. Observ. ‘Curse Ye Meroz,’ 6. [He] proceeds to talk of Faith … but possibly ’tis the Colliers Faith he means all this vvhile.
1881. Daily Tel., 28 Jan., 1/1. The *collierman’s chart is the coast.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 44. The masters of coal-ships, who they call *collier-masters.
1871. Sir T. Watson, Princ. Physic (ed. 5), II. 251. [The disease] has been sometimes called spurious melanosis sometimes *Collier’s Phthisis.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 292. To each Newcastle-ship or *Colliarship serving in his Highness his affairs [etc.].
1798. Southey, Eng. Eclog., II. Blear-eyed Moll The *collier woman.
