A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cult ...

. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents in other languages around the world (" Melnyk" in Russian, Belorussian & Ukrainian, " Meunier" in French, " Müller" or " Mueller" in German, "

Mulder Mulder is a surname of two possible origins: Dutch and German. It may be Dutch language occupational surname. It is an archaic Dutch word for " miller" (modern Dutch: '' molenaar''). With 38,207 people in the Netherlands named Mulder, it was the ...

" and "

Molenaar Molenaar is a Dutch surname deriving from the Dutch word for "miller". Molenaar is the surname of: * Beau Molenaar (born 1985), a Dutch football goalkeeper * Cees Molenaar (1928–1979), founder of the football club AZ * Dee Molenaar (1918–2020 ...

" in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...

, "

Molnár Molnár (or Molnar) is a Hungarian surname meaning "miller". The word might be a loanword from Slavic "mlynar" with the same meaning however most likely derived from the old Germanic "Mulinari”. It is the name of one of the most famous playwr ...

" in Hungarian, "

Molinero The Spanish-language surname Molinero literally meaning "miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" ...

" in Spanish, "

Molinaro Molinaro is an Italian-language occupational surname for a miller. Notable people with the surname include: * Al Molinaro, American actor * Cristian Molinaro, Italian football player * Édouard Molinaro, French film director and screenwriter * Ge ...

" or "

Molinari Molinari is an Italian language occupational surname for a miller. Notable people with this surname include: * Adriana Molinari, American (née Argentine) pornographic actress * Alberto Molinari (born 1965), Italian actor, producer, and director ...

" in Italian etc.). Milling existed in

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi ...

communities, and later millers were important to the development of agriculture. The materials ground by millers are often

foodstuff Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is in ...

s and particularly

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legume ...

. The physical grinding of the food allows for the easier digestion of its

nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

s and saves wear on the teeth. Non-food substances needed in a fine, powdered form, such as

building materials Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-ma ...

, may be processed by a miller.

Quern-stone

The most basic tool for a miller was the

quern-stone Quern-stones are stone tools for hand-grinding a wide variety of materials. They are used in pairs. The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a saddle quern, while the upper mobile stone is called a muller, rubber or handstone. The ...

—simply a large, fixed stone as a base and another movable stone operated by hand, similar to a

mortar and pestle Mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used from the Stone Age to the present day to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy. The ''mortar'' () ...

. As technology and

millstones Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and ...

(the bedstone and rynd) improved, more elaborate machines such as watermills and

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some p ...

s were developed to do the grinding work. These mills harnessed available energy sources including animal, water, wind, and electrical power. Mills are some of the oldest factories in human history, so factories making other items are sometimes known as mills, for example,

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were dri ...

s and

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finishe ...

s. These factory workers are also called millers. The rynd in pre-reformation Scotland was often carved on millers' gravestones as a symbol of their trade.

Status

In a traditional

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

society, a miller is often wealthier than ordinary peasants, which can lead to jealousy. Millers are often accused of associating with thieves, and were targeted in bread riots at times of

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...

. Conversely, millers might be in a stronger position vis-a-vis

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

land owners than are ordinary peasants.

Carnival

The traditional carnival held annually in the city of

Ivrea Ivrea (; pms, Ivrèja ; ; lat, Eporedia) is a town and '' comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley (part of the medieval Via Francigena), it str ...

, Italy, commemorates a spirited "Mugnaia" (miller's daughter) who supposedly refused to let a local duke exercise his right of the first night, and proceeded to chop the duke's head off and spark a revolution. Whatever the historical validity of the story, it is significant it was the daughter of a miller to whom folk tradition assigned this rebellious role.

Miller's thumb

As an important part of his job, the miller repeatedly takes into his hand samples of the ground meal coming out of the spout in order to feel the quality and character of the product. The miller rubs the grain between his thumb and forefinger. After years of doing this, the miller's thumb changes shape and becomes broad and flattened. This is known as a "miller's thumb". Sayings such as "worth a millerˈs thumb" and "an honest miller hath a golden thumb" refers to the profit the miller makes as a result of this skill. The shape of a miller's thumb is said to have the appearance of the head of a fish. The European bullhead (''Cottus gobio''), a freshwater fish, is commonly called a miller's thumb for this reason.''The Athenaeum'', Issues 375-426 (London, 1835) p. 297

Surname

Miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

(also known as Millar) is a common surname derived from the old English surname ''Milleiir''. The name, and its many other variants, can be found widely across Europe in countries like the UK, Ireland, and many other countries across the world.

References