the.com/sawyer
The guy who talks you into whitewashing his fence and calls it an honor.
means A person who saws wood for a living, especially one who cuts logs into planks or boards.
from A straightforward job-name word: 'saw' plus the agent suffix '-yer' (a variant of '-ier,' seen also in 'lawyer'), so a sawyer is simply 'one who saws.' It's been a surname and occupation title since medieval English, back when pit-sawing timber by hand was a two-person job over a sawpit. Mark Twain borrowed the name for Tom Sawyer, and it's his fence-painting con that gives the word its modern wink — the real etymology has nothing to do with whitewash.
- literal meaning
- Someone who saws wood for a living
- twain's version
- Con artist with the charisma of a cult leader
- name origin
- English occupational surname, like Smith or Baker
- modern echo
- Lost character, equally good at manipulating people