Gaffer
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In the motion picture industry a gaffer is the head of the electrical department, responsible for the design and execution of the lighting plan for a production. Sometimes the gaffer is credited as Chief Lighting Technician. In television the term Lighting Director is often used, but sometimes the Technical Director (T.D.) will light the studio set.
A good gaffer can completely take over the job of lighting. All you need to tell him/her is what time of day it is supposed to be. They will coordinate the whole thing… generators, lights, cable, manpower. He/she can tell you what color of gel (plastic sheeting) to put on the light to transform midday into a beautiful sunset. They can re-create the flicker of lights in a subway car or the way light from the sun moves around inside an airplane when it makes a turn, or turn night into day.
The gaffer works with the Director of photography and a key grip to put in a lighting set-up. The gaffer will usually have an assistant called a Best boy and, depending on the size of the job, a crew of studio electricians.
In some countries like Australia, the gaffer is expected to own a truck complete with most basic lighting equipment and then rent extra lighting equipment as needed.
Derivation
Early studios were "available light only", so there were articulated mirrored panels in the roof of the studio buildings that could be pushed from the floor by long "gaff" poles to bounce the sunlight to where it was needed on the set. Because the Earth moves continuously these hinged panels would need to be gaffed after each take. Once electric lighting instruments became the standard equipment, the light operators were known as electricians while the older, more experienced lighting technicians were still known as gaffers. Eventually it came to mean the guy in charge of lighting.
Also posited: Early films used mostly natural light, which stagehands controlled with large tent cloths using long poles called gaffs (stagehands were often beached sailors or stevedores, and a gaff is a type of boom on a sailing ship), or a pole with a hook on the end to assist in bringing nets or large fish aboard.
Other usages
In 16th Century English, the term "gaffer" denoted a man who was the head of any organized group of labourers, and the usage continues in colloquial British English to this day as a synonym for "boss". The word is probably a shortening of "godfather" (rather than the more commonly believed "grandfather") and is sometimes still used colloquially to refer to an old man (as in Gaffer Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings). In 16th and 17th century rural England it was not confined to elderly men and was used as a title slightly inferior to "Master" and similar to "Goodman". The female equivalent was "Gammer" (which also came to colloquially refer to an old lady).