151

The -er suffix (lemm.ee)

submitted 7 months ago by orphiebaby@lemm.ee to c/general@lemmy.world

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Transcript:

What the heck is with the "-er" suffix?

"I'm a witcher."

"What does a witcher do?"

"I ~~create~~ ~~watch~~ ~~catch~~ ~~breed~~ ~~f***~~ hunt witches."

"I'm a birder."

"What does a birder do?"

"I ~~create~~ ~~catch~~ ~~hunt~~ ~~breed~~ ~~f***~~ watch birds."

"Actually I think several of those could apply..."

I think the confusing-ass formula is this:

A [word1]er is a [word2]er of [word1]s.

all 49 comments

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[-] odium@programming.dev 36 points 7 months ago

Geralt of rivia is a witcher who fucks witches

[-] CptEnder@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago

Lol yeah was gonna say post got it wrong, Witchers don't hunt witches they hunt monsters.

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 points 7 months ago

I think create and breed are the only ones that don't apply there.

[-] MBM 32 points 7 months ago

Isn't witcher just a word that was made up for (the English translation of) the Witcher series?

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

yes, the word wiedźmin was also made up so why not

[-] Siethron@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago

So a mother is someone who watches moths?

[-] Dumbkid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 7 months ago

They create moths

[-] Neato@ttrpg.network 19 points 7 months ago

So what's a "fucker"?

[-] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 15 points 7 months ago

A fucker of fucks, clearly.

[-] sukhmel@programming.dev 13 points 7 months ago

A giver of fucks

[-] recapitated@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago

A fuck hunter

[-] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 7 months ago

One who fucks.

[-] Boinkage@lemmy.world 17 points 7 months ago

Witcher is a silly thing to use as your first example, it's a made up word for a translated book. I can't think of another word that behaves like that. Making a mountain of a made up molehill. A Molehiller, I would call you.

[-] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 12 points 7 months ago

A bouncer is a bouncer of bounce?

[-] rsuri@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

A bouncer is a creator of bounce

[-] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Well, [word2] is probably not the same as [word1].

As an aside, the wonderful thing about Tiggers, is that Tiggers are tiggers of tiggs!

[-] 3volver@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

A badger verifies badge legitimacy.

[-] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago

Or maybe he gives badges. Time to go find one O:

[-] Cosmos7349@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

Wait so what's the word for "I f*** witches"? Asking for a friend.

[-] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 15 points 7 months ago

"Witchbroomer", I think.

Although "Witchf***er" would make a great band name.

[-] Cosmos7349@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

I would go see that band. I expect heavy+aggressive drums and electric guitar.

[-] Stern@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

I'm a lemmer.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

I've always thought of it as "Xer" = "someone who Xes". X should be a verb. Builders build. Welders weld. Miners mine.

In the case of birder, birding is an activity, which I guess makes "bird" a verb ("to go birding"). "Witcher" was made up for the setting, but I guess "witch" is similarly a verb there.

[-] orphiebaby@lemm.ee -3 points 7 months ago

What is "birding"? According to dictionary, it's breed, catch, or watch. Fishers fish, right? What is "to fish" really, though? To swim? To be a fish? I mean, you can't extrapolate it from the common verb as a rule, because that doesn't apply to "birding", does it?

So no, I don't think your over-simplification works.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

It's not an over-simplification. This is literally just what the -er suffix does, besides the unrelated usage to make comparisons like "louder". Look up "agent noun" for more info.

What is “birding”? According to dictionary, it’s breed, catch, or watch.

The common usage is to watch birds. The extension of the verb "bird" into "birder" is also commonly understood to mean someone who watches birds.

What is “to fish” really, though? To swim? To be a fish?

What? It means to catch fish. I've never heard any other meaning? Again, it's not based on what a fish does, it's based on what the verb "fish" means, which is to catch fish.

I mean, you can’t extrapolate it from the common verb as a rule, because that doesn’t apply to “birding”, does it?

Ignoring the fact that "bird" is a verb with a fairly well-understood meaning, the reason "birder" or any other -er words are ambiguous is because the verbs are ambiguous. Words have multiple meanings... that's just something that they do. That doesn't change the overall rule that "birder" means "someone who birds", it just means you have to figure out which meaning of "bird" (as a verb) it's using.

[+] orphiebaby@lemm.ee -2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

No, everything you said was addressed and then you brought up a different issue that was supposedly your real point all along (and that I did also address). I see you've opted for the wheeled goalposts for easier mobility. Is this an April Fool's prank?

To be clear: You wanted to know what "fisher" means. The answer is that it means "someone who fishes". If you also don't know what the verb "fishes" means, then you can go look it up in the dictionary like any other word you don't know the meaning of. But "fisher" has a perfectly clear meaning based on the verb "fish" (or multiple potential meanings based on context, if "fish" as a verb has multiple meanings).

[+] orphiebaby@lemm.ee -1 points 7 months ago

[deleted]

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago

Yes it is! It's just not one you recognize!

[-] lefixxx@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

~~he is actually a hexer in his native language~~

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

wiedźmin? what? no, who told you that? get a refund or something

wiedźma - witch

witcher is as literal of a translation as you can get

[-] magikmw@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

Yeah and wiedźma has the same root as wiedzieć and to know in proto indo-european. He's a man of knowledge. About killing things out of this world.

Canonically witchers world coexists in our own multiverse and was similiar to our own reality, but thanks to some bonduary bluring between cosmic realms got tainted hundreds years ago by otherwordly magic and monsters.

So the whole witcher, wiedźmin name just indicates knowledge, an is likely a name given to them by common people instead of being an endonym.

[-] lefixxx@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Huh some YouTuber I can't remember. TIL

[-] Sebeck012@feddit.nl 6 points 7 months ago

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-er

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago

I was under the impression that Witcher is to be interpreted as the male form of Witch - a Witchman, basically. I think they even call Geralt a Witchman a few times in the games, come to think of it.

[-] SrTobi@feddit.de 1 points 7 months ago

What's the feminine form? Witchess?

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Is -er masculine?

[-] shasta@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago

Nope because females are not allowed!

[+] givesomefucks@lemmy.world -7 points 7 months ago

It's a contraction where the second word is dropped, because what else would you do with them?

Centuries go by, and sometimes it's no longer the most obvious. But the contraction has already been accepted

[-] theRealBassist@lemmy.world 33 points 7 months ago

It's definitely not a contraction.

-er is the agent suffix in English. Effectively it turns words into those who do something related to that word.

Hawk > Hawker = One who "hawks" Run > Runner = One who "runs"

In principle this implies the existance of a verbal form of the root word, such as the two above examples.

Witcher, as used by the fantasy series, is a weird one because it's actually not related to the agent suffix.

The Polish title of The Witcher is Wiedźma which just means "witch". When it was translated to English they adopted "witcher" as a masculine form to the oft feminine "witch" by using the ability for the -er suffix to indicate a profession or association with a noun in English i.e. Cash > Cashier, someone who handles cash/payments (actually derived from french with the -ier suffix, but point still stands). In the cass of Witcher it is one who works as/with witches or else one who is associated with Witches.

[-] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago

I don't know why anyone downvoted you.

[-] lurch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

it's because they are salty AF and want the comment to be sorted lower 😆

[+] givesomefucks@lemmy.world -11 points 7 months ago

Hawk > Hawker = One who “hawks”

What do they do with the Hawk?

They hunt with it, they're a "hawk hunter".

Run > Runner = One who “runs”

https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/noun-verb-identify

[-] Todd_cross@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 7 months ago

Hawk can be a verb meaning "to hunt with a hawk". It can also be a verb meaning "To peddle goods aggressively, especially by calling out. "

If they're hawking, i.e. hunting with a hawk, then they're a hawker.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world -4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Hawk can be a verb meaning “to hunt with a hawk”.

Because over time, we dropped the second word ...

An the second usage is "hock"

Which is a completely different word... People used "hawk" for selling because, well people don't always know what they're doing. But language evolves. Use "literally" to mean "figuratively" enough, and dictionaries start listing that as an option.

Because dictionaries aren't to teach people how to speak, they're for people trying to understand what someone else said.

Which is literally my whole point.

Over centuries, words change

https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/19/hock-hawk/

But you typed that very confidently, so you got that going for you at least.

[-] Dangdoggo@kbin.social 3 points 7 months ago

Hawk is also a verb. Many words have more than one uses.

[-] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 7 months ago

What was contracted?

this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024

151 points (86.5% liked)

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