This variant of partner, much used in the mining camps, has been brought into general notice by Mark Twain.
1821. Dr. Dwight quotes Partender for Partner as a Cockneyism: ‘Travels,’ iv. 279.
1854. Pardners keep clus arter one another!—H. H. Riley, ‘Puddleford,’ p. 126 (N.Y.).
1883. The mine is worked by two “pardners” who dig and wash by turns, the former employment being wet and heavy work.—D. Pidgeon, ‘An Engineer’s Holiday,’ p. 132 (Lond.).
1893. Many an old hunter, when far from the borderland of civilization, has buried his “pard” in the Missouri River!—Alex Majors, ‘Seventy Years on the Frontier,’ p. 260.
