A title of address, as “Gaffer Grey,” “Good-day, Gaffer.” About equal to “mate.” (Anglo-Saxon, gefera, a comrade.) Many think the word is “grandfather.” (See Gammer.)
“If I had but a thousand a year, Gaffer Green,
If I had but a thousand a year.”
Gaffer Green and Robin Rough.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.