Workers who fell trees, cut timber, and harvest wood in forests, typically living rugged outdoor lives.
'Lumber' comes from Lombard pawn-brokers ('Lombard' → 'lumbard' → 'lumber'); 'jack' means a laborer or common man. The compound emerged in North American logging industry in the 1800s.
The stereotypical rugged lumberjack in a flannel shirt is actually a 20th-century advertisement creation—early lumberjacks were often immigrant laborers in terrible conditions, but companies marketed the image of the heroic woodsman to attract workers.
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