I need help with a slang/derogatory word for a Surveyor

Post pisser?

Ravioli said:

Post pisser?

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I like the direction you're going with that. I was thinking perhaps "claim pisser" since the ground is being marked out for treasure hunters. "[Something] Pisser" definitely seems like a good way to go with it.

Scope boy?

A few ideas (in plural form)...

Stumps
Thumps
Looksees
Lookies

I have heard poor mappers called some pretty unpleasant things, but I can't think of any nasty terms, per se; they were more along the lines of dreaming up where lines should be. ot "They called every road on that side of town North Goshen Rd." That was what a title searcher said of surveyors/mappers in one town, and the title searcher was right, and titles couldn't be searched before WW II.

Grade lackey
Hill climber
Kneecap
Lazy eye
Lodebird
Slopemonger

Pass-monkey, short for "compass monkey"

Lode - I am guessing is from lodestone, the old name for a compass - or rather an old compass. Or could be about a lode of ore.

Why are the surveyors disliked? Are they annoyances, or is there a deep resentment -- ?

Hmm.
- "Squinter", "hired-eye", "crow chaser".
- "Sheet folder", "paper prophet", "tube stuffer" (re rolled maps in a carrying tube).
- "Calf-killer", "calf-skinner" (in a situation where maps are produced on vellum).
- "Compass-chaser", "lode lover" (ref. lodestones).
- "Sticks", "stringer", "stick farmer" (assuming areas are being pegged out with sticks and string).

That's mostly taking a low-tech fantasy angle, a sci-fi setting could involve more references to the specific technology employed in the setting.

NeverSayDie said:

Hmm.
- "Squinter", "hired-eye", "crow chaser".
- "Sheet folder", "paper prophet", "tube stuffer" (re rolled maps in a carrying tube).
- "Calf-killer", "calf-skinner" (in a situation where maps are produced on vellum).
- "Compass-chaser", "lode lover" (ref. lodestones).
- "Sticks", "stringer", "stick farmer" (assuming areas are being pegged out with sticks and string).

That's mostly taking a low-tech fantasy angle, a sci-fi setting could involve more references to the specific technology employed in the setting.

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I like those Though I'd still be psyched to find "post pisser" in a book!

Ravioli said:

I like those Though I'd still be psyched to find "post pisser" in a book!

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Definitely has a ring to it

Tossing them in the blender...
"Heard the lord's squinters are in the hills again. They trample all over the highlands, shitting posts and pissing string. Until the wights get 'em, and then they don't piss no more."

Nuts, I was thinking 'squint,' but someone's already hit 'squinter.' My other thought was to call them Ballers, a derivative of 'eye-ballers.' It's short and has a good mouth-feel to it, to me at least.

vgunn said:

Lodebird and Kneecap. Can you explain these?

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Lode is another word for magnet, lodestone another word for compass. Or as Bolero explained.

Kneecap refers to man who can't stand straight (someone who is kneecapped), and as a result is a lousy surveyor.

The absolute worst slur I can think of, and I'm horrifying myself, and it'll get deleted and I'm SO SO SORRY is "Tri**er"

You can kind of work it out, and you'll never use it. it's horrifying. I wiki-ed "trig points" for you. They're fixed survey stations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation_station

Treehouseman said:

The absolute worst slur I can think of, and I'm horrifying myself, and it'll get deleted and I'm SO SO SORRY is "Tri**er"

You can kind of work it out, and you'll never use it. it's horrifying.

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I admit to being at a complete loss, unless "trigger" is a slur of which I'm unaware.

I won't explain it.

That's quite all right. Probably a good call.

I love the suggestion "stick farmer." It really brings to mind vast layouts of sticks and string, which I could see being really annoying to local people.

Maybe the surveyors leave all this stuff behind, and local people trip over them / have to clean it up. This could be seriously time-consuming.

Maybe the "stick farms" are set up in people's crops, with no regard for the damage it does.

And if this is a world where respectable people have careers as warriors, then these nerds who spend their time with sticks and string wouldn't be thought well of.

Lots of possibilities here.

This morning as I wandered past, "boot counter" came to mind, so I'll just drop it here.

The extended meaning being that surveyors are too dumb to know where they are if they don't count their footsteps, hence planting all the sticks to help them keep count.

Tho I love "stick farmer"