job [M16th] Despite it seeming such an ordinary word, the origin of job is something of a mystery. The earliest example of the word is in the phrase ‘a job of work’, which suggests that ‘job’ and ‘work’ did not then have the same meaning. One suggestion is that it was a specialized use of a different word job, which meant a cartload, so that the phrase meant something like a load or piece of work, but we do not really know where this word came from either. An alternative suggestion is that it comes from Middle English gobbe, which also meant ‘a piece, a mouthful’ (see further at gobsmacked). Jobsworth [M20], formed from the phrase ‘more than my job’s worth’, was popularized by the BBC consumer affairs television series That’s Life (1973–94).