Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In some places, a laborer employed to load and unload vessels in port; a dock-hand; a longshoreman; a stevedore.
- noun A militiaman.
- noun In zoology, one who lumps several described species, genera, etc., in one: opposed to splitter.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) The European eelpout; -- called also
lumpen . - noun One who lumps.
- noun A laborer who is employed to load or unload vessels when in harbor.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The European
eelpout ; -- called alsolumpen . - noun Extra labor hired by a trucking company to assist a driver and/or customer unloading or loading a truck.
- noun biology, linguistics A scientist in one of various fields who prefers to keep categories such as species or dialects together in larger groups.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port
- noun a taxonomist who classifies organisms into large groups on the basis of major characteristics
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Dickerson, grateful to have even a temp job, was taken on as a "lumper" -- someone who schleps boxes to and from trailers all day long.
The New Blue Collar: Temporary Work, Lasting Poverty And The American Warehouse 2011
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"lumper" -- that is, a contractor in a small way who took work in the
The Life Story of an Old Rebel John Denvir
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Oh, and I had no idea that, last year, Greg Paul (a notorious taxonomic "lumper" since at least the '80s) split the taxon Iguanodon into Iguanodon, Mantellisaurus, and Dollodon.
"But I could sleep with you there. I could sleep with you there." greygirlbeast 2009
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Ignacio was a "lumper," unloading the large containers that come to the warehouses from the ports.
Tom Woodruff: Depression in California's Inland Empire Shows Need for Employee Free Choice Act 2009
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A lucky lumper might be assigned a container filled with boxes of Kleenex or stuffed animals, while an unlucky lumper might pull a container filled with kiddie swimming pools or 200-pound trampolines.
The New Blue Collar: Temporary Work, Lasting Poverty And The American Warehouse 2011
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One former lumper told HuffPost his temp status once cost him a loan -- from a payday lender.
The New Blue Collar: Temporary Work, Lasting Poverty And The American Warehouse 2011
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Yet, I am an inveterate lumper -- and only a halfhearted splitter -- so I feel compelled to connect the dots between these disparate events in an attempt to delineate our era, to name our moment.
John Feffer: The Age of Activism John Feffer 2011
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He got on as a lumper at a warehouse but was fired earlier this year, he says.
The New Blue Collar: Temporary Work, Lasting Poverty And The American Warehouse 2011
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By the end of the week he was a transient lumper on a river steamboat.
Chapter 17 2010
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Of course, it must be remembered that along with such frivolous occupations I was trying to get work as wop, lumper, and roustabout.
Chapter 25 2010
bilby commented on the word lumper
Are you a lumper, mollusque?
May 15, 2009
mollusque commented on the word lumper
I'm more on the splitter side, bilby. In my experience if a splitter is wrong, it's still possible to tell what was meant. If a lumper is wrong, it's hard to tell what was meant.
For example, let's suppose you think there are three species of snails, A, B, C, in a genus, but a splitter decides there are five, A, B, C, D, E. You can map the splitter's concepts to your own: perhaps A = A, B|D = B, C|E = C. If a lumper says there is only one species A, you don't know if only A was present, or also B and C.
DNA sequencing techniques have shown that splitters are right more often than lumpers.
May 16, 2009
madmouth commented on the word lumper
I too, mollusque, for reasons less noble (pedantry, that is).
May 16, 2009
bilby commented on the word lumper
I love mollusque.
May 16, 2009