| 释义 |
▪ I. -er, suffix1
ME. -er(e, -ar(e, OE. -ęre (ONorthumb. often -are), forming ns., represents WGer. -âri:—OTeut. -ârjo-z, whence OHG. -âri (MHG. -ære, mod.G. -er), and (with change of declension) ON. -ari (OIcel. -are, later -ari, Sw. -are, Da. -ere). The related and functionally equivalent WGer. -ari (OS. -eri, Du. -er, OHG. -ari, -eri, MHG. -ere) = Goth. -areis:—OTeut. type -arjo-z (which by phonetic law would prob. have become in OE. -erᵹe, in ON. -ri) has in OE. coalesced with this. The phonological relation between OTeut. -ā̆rjo-z and L. -ārius is obscure: Möller Zur ahd. Alliterationspoesie (1888) 142 argues that -ârjo-z originated in words adopted from Lat. words in -ārius, and that -ărjo-z is either an accentual variant of this, or (possibly) represents an OAryan type -orios.
1. In its original use the suffix -ā̆rjo-z was added (like L. -ārius) to ns., forming derivative ns. with the general sense ‘a man who has to do with (the thing denoted by the primary n.)’, and hence chiefly serving to designate persons according to their profession or occupation; e.g. Goth. dômareis, ON. dômari judge, f. OTeut. *dômo- judgement, doom; Goth. bôkareis, OE. bócere scribe, f. OTeut. *bôk- book; OHG. sangâri (mod.G. sänger), ON. sǫngare, OE. sangere (ME. songere) singer, f. OTeut. *sangwo- song. Of this type there are many specially Eng. formations, e.g. hatter, slater, tinner. Where the primary n. ends in -w:—ME. -ȝe:—OE. -ᵹe, the suffix assumes the form -yer (in ME. -iere, -yere), as in bowyer, lawyer, sawyer; and, either after the analogy of these or by assimilation to Fr. derivatives in -ier (see -er2), it appears as -ier in certain other words of ME. date, as brazier, clothier, collier, glazier, grazier, hosier. The Eng. words of this formation not referring to profession or employment are comparatively few: examples are bencher, cottager, outsider, villager. With these may be compared a class of words chiefly belonging to mod. colloquial language, and denoting things or actions, as header, back-hander, fiver, out-and-outer, three-decker. A special use of the suffix, common to the mod. Teut. langs. though scarcely to be found in their older stages, is its addition to names of places or countries to express the sense ‘a native of’, ‘a resident in’, e.g. Londoner, New Yorker, Icelander. With similar notion, derivatives in -er have been formed upon certain Eng. adjs. indicating place of origin or residence, as foreigner, northerner, southerner.
2. Most of the ns. which in early Teutonic gave rise to derivatives in -ā̆rjo-z, also gave rise to wk. vbs. in -jan or -ôjan, to which the former stood related in sense as agent-nouns; thus Goth. dômareis judge, served as the agent-noun to dômjan to judge. Hence, by analogy, the suffix came to be regarded as a formative of agent-nouns, and with this function it was added to verbal bases both of the weak and the strong conjugation. Many derivatives of this type existed already in OE., and many more have been added in the later periods of the language. In mod.Eng. they may be formed on all vbs., excepting some of those which have agent-nouns ending in -or, and some others for which this function is served by ns. of different formation (e.g. correspond, correspondent). The distinction between -er and -or as the ending of agent-nouns is purely historical and orthographical; in the present spoken language they are alike pronounced |ə(r)|, except that in law terms and in certain Lat. words not fully naturalized, -or is still sounded |ɔː(r)|. In received spelling, the choice between the two forms is often capricious, or determined by other than historical reasons. The agent-nouns belonging to vbs. f. L. ppl. stems, and to those formed with -ate, usually end in -or, being partly adoptions from Lat., and partly assimilated to Lat. analogies. But when the sense is purely agential, without any added notion such as that of office, trade, or profession, function, etc., -er is often used; cf. inspector, respecter; projector, rejecter. In a few instances both forms of the agent-noun are still in current use, commonly without any corresponding distinction in sense, as asserter, assertor; sometimes with a distinction of technical and general sense (often however neglected) as accepter, acceptor. The Romanic -our, -or of agent-nouns has been in most cases replaced by -er where the related vb. exists in Eng.; exceptions are governor, conjuror (for which -er also occurs); in special sense we have saviour, but in purely agential sense saver. In liar, beggar, the spelling -ar is a survival of the occasional ME. variant -ar(e. The agent-nouns in -er normally denote personal agents (originally, only male persons, though this restriction is now wholly obsolete); many of them, however, may be used to denote material agents, and hence also mere instruments; e.g. blotter, cutter, poker, roller, etc.
3. In several instances -er has the appearance of being an unmeaning extension of earlier words ending in -er denoting trades or offices. Most of these words are of Fr. origin, as caterer, † cytolerer (= citoler), † fermerer, † feuterer, fruiterer, poulterer; an analogous case in a native word is upholsterer. The real formation of these words is obscure: some are prob. from vbs., while in other cases formation on words in -ery may be conjectured.
4. After the analogy of astrologer, astronomer (q.v.), the suffix -er is used to form ns. serving as adaptations of L. types in -logus, -graphus; e.g. chronologer, philologer, † theologer; biographer, geographer, orthographer.
Philosopher (in Chaucer and Gower always philoˈsophre) is perh. not a formation of this kind, as the r may be merely excrescent. In chorister, sophister, barrister (cf. ME. legistre) the -er is not a suffix, but results from an AF. substitution of -istre for -iste, perh. on the analogy of ministre.
▪ II. -er2, suffix
of various origin, occurring in ns. and adjs. adopted from OF.
1. ME. -er, repr. OF. -er:—L. -ārem, -ar: see -ar. Nearly all the ME. words ending in -er of this origin have been refashioned after Lat., so that the suffix is now written -ar: see examples under -ar. The older form of the suffix is retained in sampler.
2. ME. -er, a. AF. -er (OF. -ier) in ns. which descend from L. forms in -ārius, -ārium (see -ary), or which were formed in Fr. after the analogy of those so descending. Where the L. type of the suffix is the masc. -ārius, it has usually the sense ‘a person connected with’, and the words are designations of office or occupation, as butler, carpenter, draper, grocer, mariner, officer. (So also in a few ME. adoptions of OF. fem. ns. in -iere:—L. -āria, as chamberer, lavender.) Where the suffix represents the L. neuter -ārium, the sense is ‘a thing connected with’, ‘a receptacle for’, as in antiphoner, danger, garner, etc.
3. In mod.Eng. -er appears as a casual representative of various other suffixes of OF. origin which have been weakened in pronunciation to |ə(r)|; thus in border, bracer, it stands for OF. -ëure (:—L. -ātūram), commonly represented by -ure; in laver it stands for OF. -ëor, now -oir (:—L. ātōrium), in ME. rendered -our. The agent-suffix -our (OF. -ëor:—L. -ātōrem) is now very often replaced by -er; it can seldom be determined whether this is due to phonetic weakening, or to the substitution of -er1 for its Romanic synonym. Where the same word had in 14th c. the two forms -our and -er(e, as chaungeour, changer, the former supposition is excluded; but the forms in -er(e may possibly sometimes be a. OF. nominative forms in -ere:—L. -ˈātor.
▪ III. -er3, suffix
the formative of the comparative degree in adjs. and advbs.
A. In adjs. ME. -er, -ere (-ore, -ure), -re, OE. -ra (fem., neut. -re) represents two different suffixes used in OTeut. to form the compar., viz.: -izon- (Goth. -iza, OHG., OS. -iro, ON. -ri with umlaut), and -ôzon- (Goth. -ôza, OHG. -ôro, ON. -ari). These OTeut. suffixes are f. the adverbial -iz, -ôz: see B. In OE. only a few comparatives retained the umlaut which phonetic law requires in the -izon- type; in mod.Eng. no forms with umlaut remain, except better, elder (OE. bętera, ięldra), the comparatives being ordinarily formed by adding -er to the positive. The ‘irregular comparatives’ worse (OE. wiersa = Goth. wairsiza) and less (OE. lǽssa) contain the suffix -izon in a disguised form, and the analogy of other comparatives has given rise to the extended forms worser and lesser. In mod.Eng. the comparatives in -er are almost restricted to adjs. of one or two syllables; longer adjs., and also disyllables containing any suffix other than -y or -ly, having the periphrastic comparison by means of the adv. more. Earlier writers, however, have beautifuller, eminenter, slavisher, etc.; a few modern writers, e.g. Carlyle, affect the same method. The periphrastic form is admissible (esp. in predicative use) for all adjs., even monosyllables, which are not extremely common colloquially.
2. In hinder, inner, the comparative suffix, though in WGer. and ON. formally coincident with that treated above, is quite distinct in origin, repr. OTeut. -eron-, f. OAryan -ero-.
B. In adverbs. The OE. form of the comparative suffix was -or, corresp. to OS., OHG. -ôr, Goth. -ôs:—OTeut. -ôz. OTeut. had also a suffix -iz with the same function, corresponding to L. -is in magis, nimis, and cogn. with L. -ior of adjs.; it is represented by Goth. -is, ON. -r with umlaut; in OE. by the umlaut in monosyllabic comparatives like lęng:—*langiz longer, bęt:—*batiz better, which died out in early ME., being superseded by the adj. forms. The relation between the two OTeut. suffixes is much disputed: a widely-held hypothesis is that -ôz is f. -ô adverbial suffix + -iz. The advbs. which take -er in the comparative are chiefly those which are now identical in form with adjs. (either repr. OE. advbs. in -e, or modern adverbial uses of the adj.): e.g. ‘to work harder’, ‘to stand closer’. Exceptional instances are oftener, seldomer, sooner. The advbs. in -ly2 are now compared periphrastically with more, though in earlier writers the inflexional comparison is common, e.g. easilier = more easily, ME. entierlocure = more entirely; in poetry it still occurs, as in keenlier (Tennyson).
▪ IV. -er, suffix4
the ending of certain AF. infinitives used substantively as law terms, e.g. cesser, disclaimer, misnomer, trover, user, waiver. Of similar origin is the ending in dinner, supper, a. OF. disner, soper.
▪ V. -er, suffix5
forming frequentative vbs. The vbs. of this formation which can be traced in OE. have the form -rian (:—OTeut. -rôjan); e.g. clatrian clatter, flotorian flutter. The other Teut. langs. have many vbs. of this type, denoting repeated action; often they are f. verbal bases, as MHG. wanderen = OE. wandrian wander, f. OTeut. *wandjan wend v., ON. vafra waver, f. vafa = wave v.; sometimes app. on onomatopœic bases, as OHG. zwizarôn = twitter. Further examples in Eng. are batter, chatter, clamber, flicker, glitter, mutter, patter, quaver, shimmer, shudder, slumber.
▪ VI. -er, suffix6
Also -ers.
Introduced from Rugby School into Oxford University slang, orig. at University College, in Michaelmas Term, 1875; used to make jocular formations on ns., by clipping or curtailing them and adding -er to the remaining part, which is sometimes itself distorted. Among the earliest instances are footer n.1 3 b (= football) (1863), rugger2 (1893), socker (1891); togger (1897), tosher3 (1889); bonner, brekker (1889), Divvers, ekker (1891).
Other familiar examples are bedder3, bed-sitter = bed-sittingroom, collekkers = collections (see collection 8), cupper2, and (formerly) rudders = rudiments (of divinity), stragger = stranger. Examples of proper names are Adders = Addison's Walk, Bodder = Bodleian, Jaggers = Jesus (College), Quaggers = The Queen's College. (Cf. F. Madan Oxford outside the Guidebooks, 1923.)
1892Isis 8 June 26/1 At the close of the Lancashire match we heard one man ejaculate..‘This is breath-ers’... This..is all that remains of the..expression ‘breathless excitement’. 1899Daily Tel. 14 Aug. 9/5 The triumph of this jargon was reached when some one christened the Martyrs' Memorial the ‘Martyrs' Memugger’. 1903D. Coke Sandford of Merton ii. 10 ‘Wagger-pagger-bagger’ for the receptacle of torn-up letters and the like. 1904Daily Chron. 25 Mar. 4/7 Mr. Gladstone was ‘the Gladder’. An undergraduate left his ‘bedder’ in the morning to eat his ‘brekker’ in his ‘sitter’; later he attended a ‘lecker’, and in the afternoon he might run with the ‘Toggers’ (torpid races) or take some other form of ‘ecker’. 1912Tatler 23 Oct., Suppl. 40 The ‘Pragger-Wagger’, it should be explained, is the new name given to the Prince of Wales. 1914D. O. Barnett Lett. (1915) 13 The P-Wagger came to see us yesterday. I met him coming off parade, and threw a hairy salute. 1914C. Mackenzie Sinister St. II. iii. 517 ‘They say we shall all have to interview the Warden tomorrow.’ ‘They say on Sunday afternoon the Wagger makes the same speech to the freshers that he's made for twenty years.’ Ibid. 543 ‘You'd better let me put your name down for the Ugger’. ‘The what?’..‘The Union.’ 1963Sunday Times 22 Sept. 18/4 The twenties were the age of the ‘er’ at Repton. The changing-room was the chagger and a sensation a sensagger. A six at cricket was a criper. |