A person or machine that separates cotton fibers from seeds in a cotton gin.
From 'gin' (a machine for separating cotton) + '-er' (agent suffix). The word 'gin' itself comes from 'engine,' shortened in the context of the cotton-processing machine invented in the late 18th century.
Ginners were once so important to the American South that their skill determined whether cotton farming was profitable; without efficient ginners, the Industrial Revolution might have taken a very different path economically and socially.
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