forty-niner

[fawr-tee-nahy-ner]

noun

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

forty-niner

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of forty-niner¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Example Sentences

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 is one of the defining moments in California history, with roughly 300,000 forty-niners flocking here to make their fortune from the U.S. and abroad.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The story of how a handful of 21st century “forty-niners” wound up searching for gold on a singed landscape studded with Joshua trees arcs back nearly 100 years, entangling an eclectic cast of characters.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

They built a reputation for coffee and good fish among the newly arriving forty-niners, and in 1852 they relocated to the New World Market, then San Francisco’s central produce market, on Commercial Street.

Read more on New York Times

"Like the frontiersman and the forty-niner, the traditional cowboy is a peculiarly American type, now following them into an honorable extinction," the story noted.

Read more on Time

Several forty-niners glimpsed precious metal as they dragged themselves over the mountains.

Read more on The New Yorker