A person whose job involves primarily mental work rather than physical labor, such as a scholar, professional, office worker, or anyone employed for their thinking abilities.
Compound of 'brainwork' and the agent suffix '-er'; formed in the industrial era to describe the emerging professional and intellectual classes distinct from factory and farm workers.
The term 'brainworker' emerged right alongside the class debates of the early 1900s—Marx and other theorists used it to distinguish the 'mental proletariat' (white-collar workers) from factory workers, creating new social categories.
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