Builder / construction worker

Question

Could you explain the difference between builder and construction worker?

Ivanhr · Accepted Answer

A construction worker, as far as I know, can refer only to a person working on a construction site.

A builder can refer to both people and things and denotes a person or thing used to build something. (body builders, Java/C++ Builders etc)

BarbaraPA · Answer

I would never refer to someone's occupation as a "builder."

Ivanhr · Answer

Grammar GeekI would never refer to someone's occupation as a "builder."

I guess professional body builders are an exception to the above rule.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Are you making a joke?

I think so, but you didn't have a smiley face.

That would be a bodybuilder, not a builder.

(Odd to think that that can be someone's profession, isn't it? But then, grown men get paid millions of dollars to play baseball or football for a living.)

Ivanhr · Answer

No, I wasn't making a joke. I've seen that spelling, also a body-builder (they're both possibly wrong, I'm not sure really).

Well, top athletes do get paid a lot.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Either way, body builder, body-builder, or bodybuilder, it's still not the same as "builder."

Ivanhr · Answer

There's a band called The builders and the butchers. I'm wondering what the builders means there (the opposite of the buthers perhaps?).

MissTerry · Answer

If I hire some men to build a house what are these men called?   Construction workers?

Futurist · Answer

In Australia and, I believe, the UK, it's common to refer to someone who builds houses for a living as a builder. People having this occupation also commonly refer to themselves as builders. The term builder often implies that a person is the boss of a small building site or small construction company. Someone who works for a builder on a small building site would most often be called a builder's labourer or a building sub-contractor. Rather than using the above terms, a person who specialises in a particular building skill would most often call themself by a name relating to that particular skill, e.g. bricklayer, plumber, electrician, cement renderer.

By contrast, the term construction worker is usually applied to someone who works on a large construction site, e.g. that of a skyscraper, major civic building, or railway tunnel. Such people are usually subcontractors of a large engineering firm (or employees of such a subcontractor). People of high status on such a site would not usually call themselves a construction worker; they might call themselves a building contractor, or might have a title like site manager.

The terms 'builder' and 'construction worker' are used somewhat interchangeably, but the distinction I've described above generally holds.

The peak construction industry body in Australia is called the Master Builders Association of Australia. There's a popular British animated children's character called Bob the Builder; he has his own TV show.

Futurist · Answer

IvanhrThere's a band called The builders and the butchers. I'm wondering what the builders means there (the opposite of the buthers perhaps?).

The word builder is probably intended in its most general sense of 'someone who builds things' and the word butcher might be being used in the sense of 'mass murderer'. The name therefore, could be intended as a contrast between people who make things better and people who make things worse.

Alternatively, the band might have simply chosen the name of two respectable working class jobs that happen to start with the letter 'B'. The name might have been chosen to say: 'We're just ordinary hard-working people'. There was a popular band in Australia some years back who called themselves 'The Painters and Dockers' - probably for a similar reason.

Builder / construction worker

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