a person, especially a prospector, who went to California in 1849 during the gold rush.
Origin
1850-55, Americanism
British Dictionary definitions for forty-niners
forty-niner
noun
1.
(sometimes capital) (US, history) a prospector who took part in the California gold rush of 1849
2.
49er. a type of dinghy, designed to be crewed by two people
forty-niners in Culture
forty-niners definition
Those who flocked to California in 1849 in search of gold, which had been discovered there in 1848. Reportedly, there were about eighty thousand of them.