Help: What is a tarrier

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Bert
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:57 AM

Well around a hundred years or more ago we were taught that song in school, and we were taught that Tarrier was a variant or corrupt pronunciation of Terrier. One who digs in the dirt. Which is also where the dogs get their name, most terriers being small digging dogs that went down into the earth after the fox or rat or whatever. In the military they would be called sappers, the men that is, not the dogs.

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: GUEST,maggy
Date: 12 Mar 17 - 11:53 PM

railroad worker someone who builds the railway

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Mar 17 - 02:18 AM

Both Wiktionary (on the word 'tarrier') and Wikipedia (on the song under discussion) refer to 'tarrier' as a nickname for Irish workers; since the nickname is listed as used in Northern Ireland and Scotland it's probably pejorative.

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Mar 17 - 04:56 AM

I've said it before on other threads. Multiple meanings/derivations actually strengthen the reason for the word being used/retained. People take the inference that works for them. Multiple meanings means more people like it and use it.

Tarry - the person holding the drill was maybe not as skilled, all he had to do (all!) was stand there and hold the drill and wait for the hammer. May hap he was happy-go-lucky. Laid back.
Terrier - holding that drill needed tenacity. Digging. Irish.
tarrier - auger/drill.
tarrier/terrier - in an Irish accent might sound similar.

There! You have four legs on the table. It is now stable!

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Mar 17 - 05:44 AM

Especially in a Northern accent "tarrier/terrier - in an Irish accent might sound similar".

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 13 Mar 17 - 06:37 AM

Tarrier... is one who 'tarries'... one who dawdles or is slow or lazy

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 12:26 PM

It's obvious the Amos was a minstrel in a previous life. :)

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 12:28 PM

Laugh!

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 02:39 PM

Wanted Experienced Tarrier

Must know the drill.
Must be available to work daytimes.
Unsuitable for diabetics.

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Iains
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 02:47 PM

tarrier ? railway workers who blasted the rock to clear the way for the rail bed. Originally the labour crews were mainly Irish, then later existing Chinese immigrants and subsequently recruited direct from China.

An interesting link but wanders a little from the US.
https://vimeo.com/213895492

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 16 Feb 18 - 03:08 AM

The dog, tool(s), and worker all mean "digger." From the Middle French terre. Finisterre is land's end; terrier a burrow and tarriere an auger style "post hole" digger.

TARIERE, Fr. Auger, wimble, gimlet. The French make a diftinction with refpect to the gender of this word. When they exprefs a large fized auger or wimble, they fay, Un gros Tariere, making it mafculine, and when they mean a fmall fized one, they fay, Une petite tariere, making it feminine.

TARIERRE, Fr. likewife fignifies a miner's tool with which he bores into the earth. It is ufed to force a lighted match into the chamber of a countermine, and to make it explode.

A New and Enlarged Military Dictionary, also the French Phrases and Words, London, 1802

And the digger that has to stay behind to light the fuse, is tarrying too.

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: r.padgett
Date: 16 Feb 18 - 03:50 AM

Not for long Phil!!

Boom

Ray

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 28 Mar 18 - 02:25 AM

Saw a bit of Moliere's Tartuffe in the park the other week. Made me go hmmmm...

"Tartuffe" = tar (weasel) + tuffie (sly.) The character is indeed a sly weasel.

I've heard tar used for ferret, martin, mink, otter, stoat and even wolverine. Similar beasties all.

The legendary Tarasque was said to have the body of a tar; or the tar is a mini Tarasque. Whichever.

A tarierre/terrier would then be a “weaseler” or “weasel dog” ie: bulldog, bird dog &c.

And just to make things intriguing, pine tar, from turpentine, originally came just from just one kind of tree, the terebinthus (pistacia terebinthus,) the turpentine tree.

The word terebinth is older than dirt, much less ye Olde French, not likely Indo-European even. The tree and the Tarasque legend both trace back to the Eastern-Med at some point but, it's sketchy.

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Mar 18 - 11:01 AM

My two cents:

A tarrier is simply one who delays. The boss arbitrarily calls the drillers "tarriers" because he thinks they're working too slow: tarrying.

If "tarrier" was a recognizable word in 1888 for something specific like a worker or anything else, it would show up somewhere outside of the song.

But as far as anybody knows, it doesn't.

The only other interpretation that is remotely plausible is that it's a dialect spelling of "terrier," a person figuratively like a terrier dog, though why this would apply to a drill operator would be another mystery. (Implying "dog" as an insult? Who knows?)

Either way, the average person in 1880s (who'd never heard of any other sort of "tarrier") might have understood the word either way and would presumably feel as uncertain abut it as we are.

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 12:17 AM

The Tarriers were an unpleasant family I lived next door to in the Midlands. They were always throwing barbecues in the back garden, lots of fried food, which gave them upset stomachs, and they were always farting and belching, and being disagreeable.

Finally I wrote a protest song about them. Grill! Ye Tarriers Grill! offering them culinary advice for a more healthy diet.

During the folk process, the original meaning has been sadly lost.

Subject: RE: Help: What is a tarrier
From: GUEST,ripov
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 07:32 PM

I've always enjoyed the "double-entendre" of "slackers/tunnelers", but by analogy with (I believe) mainly Irish workers who were called "navvys" because they worked on the inland waterways or "navigations", I would would think "tunneler" was the prime meaning.