forty-niner

American  

[fawr-tee-nahy-ner] / ˌfɔr tiˈnaɪ nər /

noun

1. a person, especially a prospector, who went to California in 1849 during the gold rush.

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forty-niner British  

noun

1. (sometimes capital) history a prospector who took part in the California gold rush of 1849

2.  49er.  a type of dinghy, designed to be crewed by two people

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Etymology

Origin of forty-niner

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Explanation

Someone who traveled west during the California Gold Rush was a forty-niner. Although about two billion dollars worth of gold was found during the era, few individual forty-niners struck it rich. The forty-niners got their name from the year they arrived in California. The Gold Rush began the year before, but 1849 was the peak of the mad dash to collect the shiny gold nuggets in the western territory. An estimated 90,000 prospectors traveled to California that year, coming from all over the globe to pan for gold in streams and rivers. A few made their fortunes, and many others settled in the region, which became a state in 1850.

Example Sentences

Kuchan, who’s based in Del Mar, said it’s outside his normal listing area, but he’s leaning into the forty-niner history and the gold rush potential to market the property.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2024

The late Senator George Hearst, father of William Randolph, grizzly forty-niner, poker player, breeder of race horses and cattle, owned a little newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, which he regarded as a worthless joke.

From Time Magazine Archive

The party consisted of Yamanatz, Jack and Chiquita, and an old "forty-niner" who was asked to join them under the promise of good wages and the usual "interest" in any claims which might be "staked."

From Chiquita, an American Novel The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter by Tileston, Merrill

Dodson led him to press forward with the first, and he was a "forty-niner," that pride of the old Californians.

From Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California with Other Sketches; To Which Is Added the Story of His Attempted Assassination by a Former Associate on the Supreme Bench of the State by Field, Stephen Johnson

"Hard luck," sympathized the old man, "coming near to being a forty-niner and missing it."

From The Lure of San Francisco A Romance Amid Old Landmarks by Gray, Mabel Thayer