-er

¹ American  

1. a suffix used in forming nouns designating persons from the object of their occupation or labor (hatter; tiler; tinner; moonshiner ), or from their place of origin or abode (Icelander; southerner; villager ), or designating either persons or things from some special characteristic or circumstance (six-footer; three-master; teetotaler; fiver; tenner ).

2. a suffix serving as the regular English formative of agent nouns, being attached to verbs of any origin (bearer; creeper; employer; harvester; teacher; theorizer ).

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E.R. ² American  

abbreviation

1. King Edward.

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-er ³ American  

1. a noun suffix occurring in loanwords from French in the Middle English period, most often names of occupations (archer; butcher; butler; carpenter; grocer; mariner; officer ), but also other nouns (corner; danger; primer ). Some historical instances of this suffix, as in banker or gardener, where the base is a recognizable modern English word, are now indistinguishable from denominal formations with -er1, as miller or potter.

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E.R. ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. Queen Elizabeth.

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-er ⁵ American  

1. a termination of nouns denoting action or process: dinner; rejoinder; remainder; trover .

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E.R. ⁶ American  

abbreviation

1. East Riding (Yorkshire).

2. East River (New York City).

3. emergency room.

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-er ⁷ American  

1. a suffix regularly used in forming the comparative degree of adjectives: harder; smaller .

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-er ⁸ American  

1. a suffix regularly used in forming the comparative degree of adverbs: faster .

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-er ⁹ American  

1. a formal element appearing in verbs having frequentative meaning: flicker; flutter; shiver; shudder .

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-er ¹⁰ American  

1. a suffix that creates informal or jocular mutations of more neutral words, which are typically clipped to a single syllable if polysyllabic, before application of the suffix, and which sometimes undergo other phonetic alterations: bed-sitter; footer; fresher; rugger . Most words formed thus have been limited to English public-school and university slang; few, if any, have become current in North America, with the exception of soccer, which has also lost its earlier informal character.

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er ¹¹ American  

[uh, er] / ə, ər /

interjection

1. (used to express or represent a pause, hesitation, uncertainty, etc.)

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Er ¹² American  

Symbol, Chemistry.

1. erbium.

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ER ¹³ American  

abbreviation

1. Baseball. earned run.

2. efficiency report.

3. emergency room.

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-er ¹ British  

suffix

1. a person or thing that performs a specified action

   reader

   decanter

   lighter

2. a person engaged in a profession, occupation, etc

   writer

   baker

   bootlegger

3. a native or inhabitant of

   islander

   Londoner

   villager

4. a person or thing having a certain characteristic

   newcomer

   double-decker

   fiver

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ER ² British  

abbreviation

1. (in the US) Emergency Room (in hospitals)

2. Elizabeth Regina

3. Eduardus Rex

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-er ³ British  

suffix

1. forming the comparative degree of adjectives ( deeper, freer, sunnier, etc) and adverbs ( faster, slower, etc)

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Er ⁴ British  

symbol

1. erbium

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er ⁵ British  

/ ə, ɜː /

interjection

1. a sound made when hesitating in speech

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er ⁶ British  

abbreviation

1. Eritrea

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Etymology

Origin of -er¹

Middle English -er(e), a coalescence of Old English -ere agentive suffix (cognate with Old High German -āri, Gothic -areis, from unattested Germanic -arjaz, from unattested Slavic -arĭ, from Latin -ārius ) and Old English -ware suffix forming nouns of ethnic or residential origin (e.g., Rōmware “Romans”), cognate with Old High German -āri, from unattested Germanic -warioz “people”; -ary

Origin of E.R.²

From New Latin Edwardus Rex

Origin of -er³

Middle English < Anglo-French -er, equivalent to Old French -er, -ier < Latin -ārius, -ārium. -ary, -eer, -ier ²

Origin of E.R.⁴

From New Latin Elizabeth Regina

Origin of -er⁵

< French, originally infinitive suffix -er, -re

Origin of -er⁷

Middle English -er ( e ), -re, Old English -ra, -re; cognate with German -er

Origin of -er⁸

Middle English -er ( e ), -re, Old English -or; cognate with Old High German -or, German -er

Origin of -er⁹

Middle English; Old English -r-; cognate with German - ( e ) r-

Origin of -er¹⁰

Probably modeled on nonagentive uses of -er ¹; said to have first become current in University College, Oxford, 1875–80

Example Sentences

I drove my husband to an ER in Torrance for what we had assumed was a nasty flu or its annoying bacterial equivalent.

From Los Angeles Times

Spencir Bridges was, like his dad, a child actor, with roles in the 2007 movie “Daddy Day Camp” and, in 2005, the TV series “ER.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Folks like to talk about themselves, I suppose. And when they find a listener, they keep on jabbering. Plus, it don’t—er, doesn’t—hurt to be blessed with a good set of ears.”

From Literature

“They both can get a body shaken up. But I ain’t—er, haven’t—ever been frightened by either yet. Why do you ask?”

From Literature

“What we need, Nell—er, Penelope—is a confession,” Mr. Pinkerton declared, running a hand through his wild brown beard.

From Literature

Related Words

• cry
• exclamation
• expletive
• insertion
• interpolation
• interposition
• shout