pot-walloper, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pot-walloper n.

[a pun on SE pot-walloper, lit. ‘the boiler of a pot’. ‘The term applied in some English boroughs, before the Reform Act of 1832, to a man qualified for a parliamentary vote as a householder (i.e. tenant of a house or distinct part of one) as distinguished from one who was merely a member or inmate of a householder’s family; the test of which was his having a separate fire-place, on which his own pot was boiled or food cooked for himself and his family’ (OED)]

1. a scullion, a kitchen servant.

1859		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (2nd edn) 335: Pot-Walloper. A scullion .
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		G.A. Sala in Living London (1883) Aug. 331: I want a lexicon which shall tell me about [...] ‘pot-wallopers’.
1882		N.Z. Observer 27 May 169/4: The Makarau Christian has been promoted from off-side bullock-puncher to head pot-wholloper in C.Y.’s culinary establishment.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 60: Pot Walloper, one who looks after the cooking of his meals.
1898		S.F. Call 30 Dec. 1/2: His compliments to [the] cook of the hotel Victoria, and she is ‘a goggle-eyed pot-walloper’.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Jul. 13/2: Part of the moral is that every girl, if she has to go into the domestic circle, should go there as Bridget Murphy, pot-walloper, with plenty of sass for the missus, instead of as a poor, trembling Miss Smith, lady-help.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 387: Is he not the Cave-Bear Pot-Walloper and Gridironer, the most fearsome, and, next to me, the most exalted of all the Abalone Eaters? [DA].
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 29 May 3/3: They Say [...] That The ‘Times’ [...] has cast the nurse down [...] and on with the pot walloper now.
1916		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Dec. 2s/3: The peanut who was pot-walloping for the Con.-Ponins.
1923		P. MacGill Moleskin Joe 135: Some pot-walloper from Glasgow out o’ a job.
1938		Taunton Courier 12 Mar. 4/2: In Ireland and the North of England a ‘pot-walloper’ or ‘pot-walliner’ is a derogatory name for an under-servant in the kitchen.
1942		W. Pegler George Spelvin Chats 44: George Spelvin, American and his ever-loving have been having the devil’s own time with old Hattie the potwalloper who has been working around their bower these last fifteen years.
1948		P. Kavanagh Tarry Flynn (1965) 227: ‘The dirty pot-walloper,’ she was referring to Molly now.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 99: She did not intend that the girl should marry a pot-walloper from a labourer’s camp.
1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 99: ‘Wollager’s pot-walloper school!’.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 75: Doogan was [...] sitting drinking orange with a mot who was a pot-walloper if ever I saw one.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 39: Pot Walloper Kitchenman.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 265: But he got a job, pot walloper.

2. (US) a slovenly person.

1873

J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 112: Potwalloper, a slovenly person.

3. a heavy drinker.

1887		Dundee Courier 30 Aug. 2/7: The Highland brother pursued so far the plan of the more southern pot-walloper. He entered a public house, asked for, got, and duly drank his glass of whisky.
1933		G. Milburn ‘A Pretty Cute Little Stunt’ in Brookhouser These Were Our Years (1959) 158: You old potwalloper, you!