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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

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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

In another cost-cutting move, Ford has threatened to close a plant in Sheffield, Ala., unless work ers there agree to substantial reductions in wages and benefits.

From Time Magazine Archive

They, women as well as men, all sounded like my father with their ers and errers.

From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

A prison officer has been suspended and no removals from HMP Chelmsford under the ERS will take place this week.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2025

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025

ERS does not require the consent of prisoners, but several Albanian deportees we spoke to, including Mark, said their deportation and sentence reduction were presented as voluntary.

From BBC ● May 17, 2023

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

“If ERS is known for anything,” Simpson says, “we’re known for our livestock, wallpaper and violent dance.”

From New York Times ● Jul. 24, 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

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