[f. TASK v. (or sb.) + -ER1.]
† 1. One who assesses or regulates a rate or price (e.g., of lodgings, things brought to market, etc.).
1538. Elyot, Agoranomus, he that setteth the pryce of vyttayle, a tasker.
1577. Harrison, England, II. ii. (1877), I. 82. Vicechancelors are changed euerie yeare, as are also the proctors, taskers, maisters of the streates and other officers.
1614. Purchas, Pilgrimage, II. ii. (ed. 2), 113. They had ten Aediles, Taskers or Iudges of the Market. [Cf. TAXER 1 b.]
2. One who imposes or sets a task; a taskmaster.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., II. i. 20. But now to taske the tasker.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 297. This Avaricious Plenty is its own Tasker, its owne Pharaoh.
1678. Dryden & Lee, Œdipus, III. i. Hear, ye sullen powers below: Hear, ye taskers of the dead.
1827. W. Kennedy, Poems, 63. It may not be, My taskers call me to the sea.
3. One who works or is paid by the task or piece, as distinct from a day-laborer, etc. (dial.).
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., Democr. to Rdr., 12. If our greedy Patrons hold vs to such hard conditions … they will make some of vs at last turne Taskers, Costermongers, sell Ale … or worse.
1623. R. Carpenter, Conscionable Christian, 3. A due Tasker and Day-labourer for the appointed wages and gaine.
1794. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts., 90. In cutting the lent corn, few ‘taskers’ are employed, the resident labourers being generally sufficient.
b. spec. One who threshes corn with a flail, as TASK-WORK or piece-work: see quot. 1792.
[1375. (MS. 1487) Barbour, Bruce, V. 318 (Cambr. MS.). He suld … haf … A flaill, as he a taskar [Edinb. MS. (an. 1489), thresscher] ware.]
14[?]. Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, 697/19. Hic triturator, a tasker.
c. 1575. Balfour’s Practicks (1754), 377. He that is tasker in ony man’s barn.
1744–50. W. Ellis, Mod. Husb., IV. IV. 125 (E.D.S.). A tasker who threshes out his quota of grain. Ibid., 131. Tasker-servant.
1792. Statist. Acc. Scotl., II. 353. The taskers are those, who are employed in threshing out the corn; and they receive … the twenty-fifth part for their labour; and this has been their fixed and stated wages, as far back as can be remembered.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 82. The tasker, (or thresher who worked by tasked work), had to take it from the heap,… to lay it on the floor, to shake it well, and then to thresh it.
