Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Fossor

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

FOSSOR (ὀρύκτης). An excavator (Inscript. ap. Murat. 1970. 3.); or a miner (Stat. Theb. ii. 418.); i. e. a labourer who digs out, or deep into, the ground with a sharp-pointed instrument, like the mattock (dolabra fossoria), as shown by the annexed illustration (Fossor/1.1), which represents an excavator at work amongst the Roman catacombs, from a sepulchral painting of the Christian era. The lamp at his side indicates that the scene of his operations is laid underground.

2. But as the excavator made use of the spade (pala) to clear away the soil which had been loosened by his mattock (dolabra), the word is also employed to designate a digger, or agricultural labourer, who turns up or trenches the ground with a spade, (Virg. Georg. ii. 264. Pallad. i. 6. 11.) in the manner shown by the annexed example (Fossor/2.1), from a painting of the same description as the last.

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  Fossor/1.1
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  Fossor/2.1