Also 6 wagenner, 7 waggonere, -ier, waggouner. [f. WAGON sb. + -ER1; perh. orig. a. Du. waghenaer (now wagenaar) of equivalent formation.]
1. One who has charge of a wagon as driver.
Corps of Wagoners (Mil.); see quots. 1802, 1810.
1544. in Rymer, Fœdera (1719), XV. 57. Dyvers Carts taken … and Wagenners slain.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 47. Thei wer in numbre had .lx. M. horsemen … beside footemen pages and wagoners.
1563. Golding, Cæsar, IV. 104 b. In the meanewhile the wagoners withdrawe themselues somewhat out of the battell, and set their wagons in such order, that [etc.].
1645. Papers rel. Army Solemn League & Cov. (S.H.S.), II. 502. Williame Rosse waggounr. Ibid. Payed … for the mantanence of the train of waggoniers and horses 0,028 12 00.
1752. Phil. Trans., XLVII. 561. Two waggoners were run over by a waggon loaded with stone.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v. Wagoner, Corps of Wagoners, a body of men employed in the commissariate, so called. Ibid. (1810), (ed. 3), Corps of Wagoners, or royal Wagon corps, a body of men originally employed in the train under the board of ordnance. It now forms a part of the regular army, and is subject to the quartermaster general.
1824. Barnewall & Cresswell, Rep. K. B., II. 718. It was impossible for the said S. C. Marsh, if his waggoner or book-keeper put any thing in the waggon at Thetford or on the road, to know of it.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 610. The waggoners drove off at full speed, and never stopped till they were many miles from the field of battle.
1870. Daily News, 3 Oct. Carters and waggoners of every sort were helping the good work.
attrib. 1898. ‘Maxwell Gray,’ Ribstone Pippins, iii. 79. Oh, the waggoner-boy hath a life of joy.
b. jocular. The driver of a vehicle.
1841. J. T. J. Hewlett, Peter Priggins, I. ii. 59. ‘Now,’ said Tom, ‘tumble in, old fellow: I’m waggoner—you pay pikes.’
1850. Smedley, F. Fairlegh, xiii. We hired a drag…. The first day we went out they elected me waggoner, and a nice job I had of it.
c. Used as the designation of a particular class of farm servant, whose special duties include the driving of a wagon: see quot. 1908. Also called a carter.
1790. W. H. Marshall, Rur. Econ. Midl., II. 445. Waggoner; an upper man servant; carter.
1804. A. Hunter, Georgical Ess., V. 501 (E. D. D.). The waggoner or head ploughman pays an early regard to his horses.
1817. J. Bradbury, Trav. Amer., 316. The waggoners travel with great economy.
1908. Daily Mail, 6 April, 6/5. The chief duty of the ‘wagoner’ [Lincs.], despite his name, is to cultivate the arable land…. Wagoners also take the threshed corn to the nearest town in wagons (the occupation from which they take their name, though it is one of their least important duties).
d. Mining. (See quots.)
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 70. Waggoner, a man in charge of a horse who arranges railway trucks in pit sidings.
1900. Daily News, 9 Feb., 3/2. Sometimes the lads and youths who look after the trucks in the main roads are called waggoners.
† 2. The driver of a chariot, a charioteer. Chiefly with mythological reference. Obs.
Frequently applied to Phœbus or to Phaethon as charioteer of the sun.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., V. ii. 48. And then Ile come and be thy Waggoner, And whirle along with thee about the Globes. Ibid. (1592), Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 64. Her Waggoner, a smal gray-coated Gnat.
1603. Dekker & Chettle, Grissil (Shaks. Soc.), 9. Look how yon one-ey’d waggoner of heaven Hath by his horses’ fiery-winged hoofs, Burst ope the melancholy jail of night.
1614. Bp. J. King, Vitis Palatina, 8. Elias, auriga in aëre, was a wagoner in the aire, rode in a chariot, through the cloudes.
1636. Fitz-Geffrey, Holy Transport. (1881), 169. Now seemes the Sunnes vnwearied Waggonere, Who every day surrounds this earthly sphere, To make a stand.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 61. The fierce winged beasts … throw the unexperienced waggoner headlong downe with waggon and all.
fig. 1621. T. Bedford, Sin unto Death, 29. Spurred … on by two most passionate Waggoners, Feare and Envie.
3. a. The northern constellation AURIGA. † b. Applied to the constellation Boötes, viewed as the driver of ‘Charles’s Wain.’ Obs.
a. 1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 248. I might conclude the discourse of Kiddes with a remembraunce of their constellation in the Waggoner, vppon the Bulles Horne.
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 486. The ancient Constellations [include] … Auriga, The Waggoner.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 382. [The Milky Way] afterwards bears away under the form of a single and narrow branch, which traverses Cassiopea, passes by the Waggoner [etc.].
b. 1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 1. By this the Northerne wagoner had set His seuenfold teme behind the stedfast starre.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 318.
| Begin when the slow Waggoner descends; | |
| Nor cease your sowing till Mid-winter ends. |
4. A wagon-horse; in quot. a depreciatory term for a racehorse.
1859. Sporting Mag., Oct., 241. Magnum, the Baron’s chesnut waggoner, wore huge blinkers.
