Dictionary

musher en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈmʌʃə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈmʌʃəɹ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From mush (“to drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across snow”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Mush is probably derived from French marche or marchons, respectively the second-person singular and first-person plural imperative forms of marcher (“to move; to travel; to walk”), from Proto-Germanic *markōną (“to mark; to notice”), from *marką (“mark; sign; stamp”), possibly related to *markō (“border, boundary; area, region”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *merǵ- (“(noun) border, boundary, edge; (verb) to divide”).

Meanings

1. One who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race.
   • A sled dog learns that by the time she's hungry, her musher has already prepared a meal; by the time she's tired, she has a warm bed. 2020 September 23, Blair Braverman, “What my sled dogs taught me about planning for the unknown”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2023:
   • The youngest musher to enter was Dallas Seavey, who ran in the 2005 Junior Iditarod at age 17, then turned 18 one day before the Iditarod and ran that race in the same year. […] Dallas Seavey was also the youngest musher to win, taking the 2012 championship at age 25. 2014, Tricia Brown, “Champions and Record Breakers”, in Iditarod, Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 109:
   • It was a record run. Each day for fourteen days they had averaged forty miles. For three days Perrault and François threw chests up and down the main street of Skaguay and were deluged with invitations to drink, while the team was the constant centre of a worshipful crowd of dog-busters and mushers. 1903 July, Jack London, “Who Has Won to Mastership”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, pages 109–110:
2. One who travels over snow, chiefly by dogsled but also by foot.

Forms

Deriveds

dog musher

Synonyms

dog musher

Translations (3)

fi koiravaljakon ohjastaja (one who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race) · ysr ӄымпылъыгаӽта (one who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race) · fi lumessa kulkija (one who travels over snow)

musher en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈmʌʃə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈmʌʃəɹ/ (General-American)

Etymology

Origin uncertain, possibly from mush (“cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), although the word is attested slightly earlier than mush. Mush is possibly derived from mush (“to drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across snow”, verb) (see etymology 1), or mush (“(slang, rare) umbrella”, noun) (a clipping of mushroom, from the similar appearance; referring to drivers shielding passengers with umbrellas in rainy weather).

Meanings

1. (London, slang) Synonym of mush (“a cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well”).
   • Nobody knew Old Joe. He was a "musher"—that is to say, he owned his own cab and mostly did night work. He gave no trouble to anybody, and came and went as a rule in the dark hours of the night. 1927, Edgar Wallace, chapter XXXIV, in The Clever One [The Forger], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: The Crime Club, Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1928, →OCLC, page 287:

Forms

Synonyms

mush

musher en · NOUN · etymology 3

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈmʌʃə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈmʌʃəɹ/ (General-American)

Etymology

Clipping of musher(oom) or musher(oon), variants of mushroom.

Meanings

1. (England, dialectal, qualifier:chiefly Hampshire) A mushroom.

Forms