Grafter.

[Mark Odegard]

>From the Online Telegraph:

"The Left's victory was being ascribed to the quality of M Delanoe, an
unflamboyant grafter who concentrated on local issues."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=gjGYNlnu&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/3/20/wfra20.html

My main usage of 'grafter' is 'one who takes graft'; 'a corrupt politician'.
I see, however, that M-W and AHD4 lack this sense.

I'd call the other kind of grafter a 'tree grafter', with 'tree' being
obligatory. AHD4 does not record this sense.

The Telegraph may have been deliberately arch in its comment about Paris
Mayor-Elect Delanoe, but I don't think so; a Freudian slip perhaps. Often
enough, however, the Telegraph comes up with some Lulus, the sort of stuff
an editor should have caught.

The tree-grafting sense does not seem apt to the context. There is a BrE
sense, that of 'work', thus 'a worker'. I'm not certain what the Telegraph
meant.


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