different between labour vs peonage
labour
English
Alternative forms
- labor (American)
Etymology
From Middle English labouren, from Old French laborer, from Latin laborare (“(intransitive) to labor, strive, exert oneself, suffer, be in distress, (transitive) to work out, elaborate”), from labor (“labor, toil, work, exertion”); perhaps remotely akin to robur (“strength”). Displaced native English swink (“toil, labor”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /?le?.b?/
- (US) IPA(key): /?le?.b?/
- Rhymes: -e?b?(?)
Noun
labour (countable and uncountable, plural labours) (British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)
- Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
- That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
- 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
- Being a labour of so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
- 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
- (uncountable) Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
- (uncountable) A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
- The act of a mother giving birth.
- The time period during which a mother gives birth.
- (nautical) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
- An old measure of land area in Mexico and Texas, approximately 177 acres.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)
Usage notes
Like many others ending in -our/-or, this word is spelled labour in the UK and labor in the U.S.; in Canada, labour is preferred, but labor is not unknown. In Australia, labour is the standard spelling, but the Australian Labour Party, founded 1908, "modernised" its spelling to Australian Labor Party in 1912, at the suggestion of American-born King O'Malley, who was a prominent leader in the ALP.
- Adjectives often used with "labour": physical, mental, skilled, technical, organised.
Synonyms
- swink, toil, work
Derived terms
- labour-intensive
- (The act of a mother giving birth): labour pain
Related terms
- laborious
- laboural
Translations
Verb
labour (third-person singular simple present labours, present participle labouring, simple past and past participle laboured) (British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)
- (intransitive) To toil, to work.
- (transitive) To belabour, to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc).
- I think we've all got the idea. There's no need to labour the point.
- To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard or wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden.
- 1726, George Granville, Love
- the stone that labours up the hill
- 1726, George Granville, Love
- To suffer the pangs of childbirth.
- (nautical) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)
Derived terms
- labourer
- labourism
- labourist
- labourite
- labour-saving
- marmalade labour
Related terms
- laboratory
Translations
Further reading
- labour in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- labour in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- labour at OneLook Dictionary Search
- "labour" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 176.
Breton
Noun
labour
- work, job
French
Etymology
Deverbal of labourer. See also labeur.
Noun
labour m (plural labours)
- cultivation
Related terms
- labourable
- labourage
- labourer
Further reading
- “labour” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Old French
Noun
labour m (oblique plural labours, nominative singular labours, nominative plural labour)
- (late Anglo-Norman) Alternative spelling of labur
Noun
labour
- nominative plural of labour
labour From the web:
- what labour pain feels like
- what labour means
- what labour feels like
- what labour market
- what labour force
- what labourers do
- what labour union
- what labour party stands for
peonage
English
Etymology
From peon +? -age.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /?pi??n?d?/
Noun
peonage (plural peonages)
- The state of being a peon; the system of paying back debt through servitude and labour; loosely, any system of involuntary servitude.
- 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 217:
- But there was work to be done down in the Salinas Valley where César Chávez was organizing the grape pickers and lettuce workers out of their state of un-unionized peonage.
- 2014, Michael Nava, The City of Palaces, Terrace Books 2014, p. 191:
- "It wasn't just the crowds," Luis said softly. "I saw with my own eyes that Díaz's México is a Potemkin village, Miguel. The México profundo where the poor are so hungry they eat grass and bark. I met Indians whose land is being devoured by Díaz's cronies, entire towns swallowed up, and the people reduced to peonage. I talked to Mexican railroad workers who are paid a fraction of what the American owners pay their own countrymen for the same work."
- 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 217:
Related terms
- peonage slavery on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Translations
Further reading
- Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “peonage”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
peonage From the web:
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