roughneck

English

Etymology

From rough +‎ neck, originally "someone who works a manual labour job".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌfˌnɛk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

roughneck (plural roughnecks)

1. (colloquial, chiefly US) A labourer on an oil rig or in the oilpatch, either skilled or semiskilled. [from 20th c.]

   Synonym: roustabout

   • 1992, Elmer P. Wheaton, “William Bradford Whitehill Rand”, in Memorial Tributes: Volume 5, page 234:

     This first ship had a small geophysical-type drilling rig mounted over the side of the ship with a steel grid runround for the roughnecks, who stood in knee-deep water while making connections or pulling the drill string.

   • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 286:

     As for the minerals, there has been a good deal of drilling along the big river; trucks and roughnecks no longer garner any notice.

2. (colloquial, chiefly US, dated) A dirty or low-paid worker, a labourer; an ironworker in an ironworks or a steelworker in a steelworks. [from 20th c.]

   Synonym: roustabout

3. (colloquial, chiefly US) Someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person. [from 19th c.]

   Coordinate term: redneck

   • 2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 202:

     LaTisha has long wanted to show Carole sheʼs not the roughneck she used to be, the roughneck who wasnʼt good enough to be her friend.

Translations

someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person

Bulgarian: грубиян (bg) m (grubijan) French: ours mal léché (fr) m, arriéré (fr) m German: Raubein (de) n Hungarian: tahó (hu), bunkó (hu), (dated in this sense) vagány (hu) Ottoman Turkish: طولومبه‌جی (tulumbacı) Portuguese: grosseirão m, malcriado (pt) m, casca-grossa m or f

ironworker; dirty or low-paid worker, laborer — see also ironworker,‎ laborer

Hungarian: rakodómunkás (hu), segédmunkás (hu)

a laborer on an oil rig

Hungarian: olajfúró

See also

• leatherneck
• oil trash
• roughneck on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

roughneck (third-person singular simple present roughnecks, present participle roughnecking, simple past and past participle roughnecked)

1. To work as a laborer on an oil rig.
   • 2009 January 13, Michael Brick, “Racing's Last Frontier”, in New York Times‎:

     There was a time not long ago when this region appeared as some enduring mystification, its citizenry best known for roughnecking on the North Slope […]