swinkere

Middle English

Noun

swinkere (plural swinkeres)

1. laborer; toiler
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:

     With him ther was a plowman, was his brother, / That hadde ylad of donge ful many a fother. / A trewe swinkere and a good was he, / Livinge in pees and a parfit charitee. […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)