workie

English

Etymology

From work (noun) +‎ -ie (suffix forming colloquial nouns denoting persons associated with the words to which they are affixed).[1] Sense 1 (“intern”) alludes to work experience.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɜːki/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɜɹki/
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Homophone: worky
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ki
  • Hyphenation: work‧ie

Noun

workie (plural workies) (informal)

  1. (slang) An intern.
    • 2014, Julie Bradford, Fashion Journalism, page 22:
      Other interns are another good source of advice and support. Melody Small, a 20-year-old student from Canterbury who did a two-week editorial placement at Grazia, said: 'Make friends with other workies […]
  2. (chiefly Scotland) A worker, especially a manual labourer.
  3. (US politics, historical) Chiefly in the form Workie: a member or supporter of a Working Men's (or Workingmen's) Party, one of a number of political parties established in the United States in the early 19th century to further working class interests.

Alternative forms
  • (senses 2 and 3): worky
  • (sense 3): Workie

References
  1. Compare “workie, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “workie, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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