also brick-layer, "one who builds with bricks," late 15c., from brick (n.) + layer in the original sense. Related: Bricklaying.
Entries linking to bricklayer
brick n.
"rectangular block of artificial stone (usually clay burned in a kiln) used as a building material," early 15c., from Old French briche "brick," which is probably from a Germanic source akin to Middle Dutch bricke "a tile," etymologically "a bit, a fragment, a piece broken off," from the verbal root of break (v.).
Of a brick-shaped loaf by 1735. The meaning "a good, honest fellow" is from 1840, probably on notion of squareness (as in fair and square), though in English brick and square when applied to persons generally are not compliments.
Brick wall in the figurative sense of "impenetrable barrier" is from 1886. Brick-and-mortar (adj.) as figurative of "physically real" is from 1865. To do something like a ton of bricks "vigorously" is from 1929 (earlier thousand of bricks, 1836), probably from the notion of how hard such a weight of them would fall or hit.
layer n.
late 14c., "one who or that lays" (especially stones, "a mason"), agent noun from lay (v.). Passive sense of "a thickness of some material laid over a surface" is first recorded 1610s, but because the earliest English use was in cookery this is perhaps from French liue "binding," used of a thickened sauce. Of hens from 1707. Layer cake attested from 1875.