Gaffer (occupation)

One possibility is that the term originally referred to the moving of overhead equipment, or before electricity and in Shakespeare-era play theatres, lighting louvres to control lighting levels using a long pole with a wide grappling hook on its end, called a gaff.

[2] Both words are found in the comic play Gammer Gurton's Needle, printed in 1575 but possibly written earlier.

In this etymology, "gaffer" later became used more generally for a "master" or "governor", and by 1841 was applied to foremen and supervisors of gangs of workmen.

[2] The Oxford English Dictionary includes a citation from Picture-Play Magazine of 1926[2] and a 1929 book on motion picture production also uses the term.

The gaffer will usually have an assistant called a best boy and, depending on the size of the job, crew members who are called "set lighting technicians" or "electricians", although not all of them are trained as electricians in the usual sense of the term.