Editing Teamster (section)

{{Short description|Worker driving draft animals or trucks}}
{{For|the labor union|International Brotherhood of Teamsters}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
[[File:Oktoberfest-Pferdegespann.jpg|thumb|Teamster driving a team of six horses at the [[Oktoberfest]] in [[Munich]], [[Germany]] ]]
[[File:Lydia Vargo and Teamster with delivery wagon - DPLA - 2b644e8eacb6fdb8384ddd529b469786.jpg|thumb|right|Lydia Vargo and Teamster with delivery wagon in [[Toledo, Ohio]] {{circa|1920}}]]

A '''teamster''' in [[American English]] is a [[truck driver]]; a person who drives teams of [[draft animal]]s; or a member of the [[International Brotherhood of Teamsters]], a [[Labor unions in the United States|labor union]]. In some places, a teamster was called a [[cart]]er, the name referring to the [[bullock cart]].<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.sundaytimes.lk/140209/sunday-times-2/how-kotelawala-snr-got-young-brother-in-law-killed-84856.html |first = Jayantha |last = Gunasekera |newspaper = The Sunday Times |location = Sri Lanka |title = How Kotelawala (Snr) got young brother-in-law killed |date = 9 February 2014 }}</ref> {{wiktionary|teamster}}

Originally the term ''teamster'' meant a person who drove a team, usually of [[ox]]en, [[horse]]s, or [[mule]]s, pulling a [[wagon]],<ref>{{OEtymD|teamster}}</ref> replacing the earlier ''teamer''.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=teamster |title = teamster, n. |work = OED Online |publisher = Oxford University Press |date = December 2020 |access-date = 11 February 2021 }}</ref>

This term was common by the time of the [[Mexican–American War]] (1848) and the [[Indian Wars]] throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries on the [[American frontier]].

Another name for the occupation was ''bullwhacker'', related to driving oxen. A teamster might also drive [[pack animal]]s, such as a muletrain, in which case he was also called a [[muleteer]] or muleskinner.  Today this person may be called an [[outfitter]] or [[pack train|packer]].<ref>{{cite book |last = Shemanski |first = Frances |year = 1984 |chapter = Mule Days Celebration |title = A Guide to Fairs and Festivals in the United States |publisher = Greenwood Press |location = Westport, Connecticut |page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=SYScSu_rkD0C&pg=PA15 15] |isbn = 0-313-21437-9 }}</ref>

In [[Australian English]], a teamster was also called a bullocker or [[bullocky]]{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} and was sometimes used to denote a [[Common carrier|carrier]].<ref>{{cite news |title = The Late Mr. T. Williams |url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104351363 |access-date = 21 June 2023 |publisher = Adelong and Tumut Express |date = 29 March 1912 }}</ref>

From the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] at least through [[World War I]], [[United States Army]] enlisted personnel responsible for transporting supplies by wagon and for the upkeep of those draft animals were called wagoners.<ref>{{cite web |title = The American Revolutionary War (1776) |url = http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/revolutionary.htm |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150311215425/http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/revolutionary.htm |url-status = dead |archive-date = 11 March 2015 |publisher = U. S. Army Transportation Museum |access-date = 22 May 2017 }}</ref>