forty-niner
[fawr-tee-nahy-ner]
- a person, especially a prospector, who went to California in 1849 during the gold rush.
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Origin of forty-niner
An Americanism dating back to 1850–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for forty-niners
Historical Examples
"My father was one of the 'forty-niners,'" put in Jim, eagerly.
The Boy With the U.S. MinersFrancis Rolt-Wheeler
I do not doubt they too were Forty-niners; but I did not stop.
GoldStewart White
Min was exactly the type of girl to fit into the story of The 123 Forty-Niners.
Ruth Fielding In the SaddleAlice B. Emerson
These first comers were called the Forty-Niners, because most of them came in the year 1849.
A Short History of the United StatesEdward Channing
Excuse this diversion, I must get back to my subject, the days of the forty-niners.
The Adventures of a Forty-ninerDaniel Knower
forty-niner
- (sometimes capital) US history a prospector who took part in the California gold rush of 1849
- 49er a type of dinghy, designed to be crewed by two people
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
forty-niners
Those who flocked to California in 1849 in search of gold, which had been discovered there in 1848. Reportedly, there were about eighty thousand of them.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.