dataler means A worker who is hired and paid by the day, especially an underground mine worker. It carries an Arena rating of 1256, earned across 161 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, dataler ranks #2,753 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #3,363 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #3,889 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #4,805 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
Why “dataler” is a great word
DATALER — [Noun] A worker, especially an underground miner, hired and paid by the day. From a dialectal form of 'day tale' combined with the agent suffix '-er', referring to wages reckoned or 'told' by the day; the first element is perhaps analogous to Icelandic 'dagatal' ('day-count'). First attested in 1844. Unlike a "journeyman," whose title implies certified skill and settled status, or a "contractor," who operates under a defined, autonomous agreement, the dataler is a unit of labor measured in single sunrises. He is the clink of a coin in a soot-blackened palm at the pithead, the tally-mark on a foreman's slate, and the aching uncertainty of tomorrow's call—a life measured not in years or craft, but in the raw, precarious calculus of subsistence.
Etymology
From a dialectal form of day tale + -er, as the salary is told by the day; the first element is perhaps analogous to Icelandic dagatal.
noun
- A worker who is hired and paid by the day, especially an underground mine worker.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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