hireling

English

Etymology

From Middle English hirlyng, from Old English hȳrling (“hireling, employee”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀijuling. Cognate with West Frisian hierling, Dutch huurling (“hireling, mercenary”), German Low German Hüürling, German Heuerling.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhaɪ.ə.lɪŋ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhaɪɹˌlɪŋ/

Noun

hireling (plural hirelings)

1. (usually derogatory) An employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Job 7:1, column 2:

     Is there not an appointed time to man vpon earth? are not his dayes alſo like the dayes of an hireling?

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Miss Crawley at Nurse”, in Vanity Fair , London: Bradbury and Evans , published 1848, →OCLC, page 167:

     When my poor James was in the small-pox, did I allow any hireling to nurse him?

2. (usually derogatory) Someone who does a job purely for money, rather than out of interest in the work itself.
   • 1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, , →OCLC, folio 10, recto:

     […] it may bee truely affirmed, that no kinde of men loue buſineſſe for it ſelfe, but thoſe that are learned; for other perſons loue it for profite; as an hireling that loues the worke for the wages;

   • 1821, Lord Byron, “Sardanapalus”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, , →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 56:

     These vain bickerings / Are spawn'd in courts by base intrigues and baser / Hirelings, who live by lies on good men's lives.

3. A horse for hire.
   • 1934, Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust, Chapter 3, Section 5:

     In the afternoon they went to a neighbouring livery stables to look for hirellings.

4. (obsolete) A prostitute.

Synonyms

• flunky
• lackey
• mercenary

Translations

See also

• underling