Swamper (occupational title)


A swamper in occupational slang is an assistant worker, helper, maintenance person, or someone who performs odd jobs. The term has its origins circa 1857 in the southern United States to refer to a workman who cleared roads for a timber faller in a swamp, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It has since branched out into a variety of meanings, all of which denote some variation on an unskilled laborer working as an assistant to a skilled worker.

Examples of usage