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151

The -er suffix (lemm.ee)

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

46 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] 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.