different between workman vs ratten

English

Etymology

From Middle English werkman, from Old English weorcmann (“workman”), equivalent to work +? -man. Compare Dutch werkman (“workman”), German Werkmann (“labourer, workman”), Icelandic verkamaður (“workman”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w?km?n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w??km?n/
• Hyphenation: work?man

Noun

workman (plural workmen)

1. A man who labours for wages.
2. An artisan or craftsman.

Derived terms

• a bad workman always blames his tools

Related terms

• worker
• workwoman

Translations

English

Etymology

From Provincial English ratten (“rat”), i.e. to do mischief like a rat.

Verb

ratten (third-person singular simple present rattens, present participle rattening, simple past and past participle rattened)

1. (obsolete, Northern England) To sabotage machinery or tools as part of an industrial dispute, particularly the tools of a workman who went against the union.
   • 1867, Report Presented to the Trades Unions Commissioners by the Examiners Appointed to Inquire Into Acts of Intimidation, Outrage, Or Wrong Alleged to Have Been Promoted, Encouraged, Or Connived at by Trades Unions in the Town of Sheffield, Great Britain. Royal Commission on Trades Unions. G.E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode, 1867. p. 225:

     Did you also employ them to ratten people if they had broken any rules of your society, for instance, by having too many apprentices?

   • 1947, Ivor John Carnegie Brown, Say The Word, p 100:

     […] derived from the sabot or shoe beneath railway lines. The saboteur was thus a remover of metal shoes, a train-wrecker. I must leave it at that. Meanwhile why not restore ratten to its old place in the Trade Union vocabulary, that is if, in these times of scant, we must endure any such wanton hindrance of the works?

Anagrams

• Arnett, attern, natter, tarten, treant

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?t?n

Noun

ratten

1. Plural form of rat

Anagrams

• natter, tarten

Middle English

Verb

ratten

1. to tear apart
   • 1402, "The Reply of Friar Daw Topias":

     renden and ratyn

References

• “ratten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Swedish

Noun

ratten

1. definite singular of ratt

Anagrams

• tanter, tentar