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• ers
  ers

  noun

  ervil.
• ERS
  ERS

  Emergency Radio Service.
• -ers
  -ers

  a semantically empty suffix that creates informal variations of more neutral nouns and adjectives by processes of truncation identical to those of -er (champers; preggers; starkers ); unlike that suffix, however, -ers is apparently productive, and words formed with it do not appear to belong to a restricted linguistic register, as university slang.

ers

¹ American  

[urs, airs] / ɜrs, ɛərs /

noun

1. ervil.

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ERS ² American  

Or E.R.S.

1. Emergency Radio Service.

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-ers ³ American  

1. a semantically empty suffix that creates informal variations of more neutral nouns and adjectives by processes of truncation identical to those of -er (champers; preggers; starkers ); unlike that suffix, however, -ers is apparently productive, and words formed with it do not appear to belong to a restricted linguistic register, as university slang.

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ERS British  

abbreviation

1. earnings related supplement

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Etymology

Origin of ers¹

Middle French < Old Provençal < Late Latin ervus, variant of Latin ervum. See ervil

Origin of -ers³

Perhaps a conflation of -er ⁷ with the final element of bonkers and crackers in the sense “wild, crazy” (unless these words themselves contain this suffix); cf. -s ³

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ers ERS -ers

But we lived in a way unimaginable to 9-5 ers.

From New York Times ● Dec. 12, 2018

The United States soon got wind of Guevara’s presence and sent CIA agents and military advis ers to assist the regime of René Barrientos.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 5, 2017

Roosevelt Island is fantastic: right in the middle of the Potomac River and filled with woodpeck- ers, frogs, marshes, trails, and a seventeen-foot statue of Roosevelt himself, in shining bronze and larger than life.

From MSNBC ● Sep. 9, 2014

Then there are all the auxiliary industries: desks to hold computers, luggage to carry them, cleans ers to polish them.

From Time Magazine Archive

They were the doctors and dentists and teach- ers and bankers and landowners.

From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau

Last year, the government introduced changes to ERS allowing prisoners with no right to be in the country to face deportation 30% into their prison term, rather than the previous 50%.

From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026

ERS doesn’t traffic in emotional realism or literal re-creation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025

A spokeswoman for ERS said the company had discussed “an investment by a Chinese private equity firm,” but added that it had not yet received any information from the government on a decision.

From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2022

Although the ERS data are helping many plan future observations, most cycle 1 data are still locked up and some will remain so until the second half of 2024.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 2, 2022

Jess Blair, director of ERS Cymru, the Electoral Reform Society, said the way people can cast their vote "hasn't changed much" over the last century "so we're delighted to see these pilots launching this weekend".

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2022

Paisley had never been a competitive swimmer or a dancer or any of the other -ers that might help someone dance underwater.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 15, 2018

A -ers gath- -ing moss no roll- stone.

From Little Folks (October 1884) A Magazine for the Young by Various