ABSTRACT
First let’s clear up an ancient controversy. By now, you will likely have heard many fanciful stories about the origin of the term “gaffer.” Let’s set the record straight-according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “gaffer” is a sixteenth-century term meaning “one whose position entitled him to respect,” or, more directly, “the foreman or overman of a gang of workmen: a headman … a master, a governor.”
