ME. -er(e, -ar(e, OE. -ęre (ONorthumb. often -are), forming sbs., 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. -erʓe, in ON. -ri) has in OE. coalesced with this. The phonological relation between OTeut. -ărjo-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 -ărjo-z was added (like L. -ārius) to sbs., forming derivative sbs. with the general sense ‘a man who has to do with (the thing denoted by the primary sb.),’ and hence chiefly serving to designate persons according to their profession or occupation; e.g., Goth. dômareis, ON. dômari judge, f. OTeut. *dômo- judgment, 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 sb. ends in -w:—ME. -ȝe:—OE. -ʓe, 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 sbs. that in early Teutonic gave rise to derivatives in -ărjo-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 that have agent-nouns ending in -or, and some others for which this function is served by sbs. 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 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 sbs. serving as adaptations of L. types in -logus, -graphus; e.g., chronologer, philologer, † theologer; biographer, geographer, orthographer.
Philosopher (in Chaucer and Gower always philoso·phre) 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.
