buzzer

Etymology

It is formed from English buzz + -er, an agent noun from the verb,^[2][3][4][5] which is imitative of the sound of bees and other insects.^[3] The OED derives the slang buzzer, a pickpocket, from buzz in the slang sense to pick pockets.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who spreads tales in secret, a whisperer: 1604, in Shakespeare's Hamlet: "wants not buzzers to infest his ear".^[2][4][6] The sense is now obsolete.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From 1606 the word was used of a buzzing insect,^[2][4] which Etymonline gives as its first sense, about 1600.^[3] Johnson (1755) knew only the Shakespearean "secret whisperer".^[6] In the 1870s it was applied in Britain to the steam whistles that called workers into factories and dismissed them;^[3][2] from the early 1880s it was applied to electric devices that make a buzzing sound as a signal: the trembler of an induction coil (1882) and an electric call or alarm (1884).^[2][3] Services' slang called a signaller a buzzer (1915).^[2] From 1934, first in American use, a doorbell was also a buzzer.^[2] Various machines that buzz as they work, such as a polishing wheel or a circular saw, were given the name from 1884.^[2] In slang the word has meant a pickpocket (from 1791 in Green's dictionary),^[7][2] a car (early 20th century) and a detective's badge, and by metonymy a detective (1891, American).^[7] In West Yorkshire dialect a buzzer was a centrifugal machine for drying cloth.^[8] In New Zealand it is also a wood-planing machine.^[9]

Timeline

• 1604 – a whisperer of tales, in Shakespeare's Hamlet (now obsolete).^[2][4]
• 1606 – an insect that buzzes.^[2]
• 1791 – slang, a pickpocket.^[7]
• 1870 – a steam whistle used as a signal.^[2]
• 1882 – the trembler of an induction coil.^[2]
• 1884 – an electric device that makes a buzzing sound as a signal; a machine that buzzes, such as a circular saw.^[2]
• 1915 – services' slang, a signaller.^[2]
• 1934 – a doorbell, originally in American use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An electric signal device that makes a buzzing sound, used like a bell: Press the buzzer when you know the answer.^[9][10][2]
2. The sound made by such a device.^[10]
3. A person or thing that buzzes, especially an insect.^[9][2]
4. A doorbell.^[2]
5. (New Zealand) A wood-planing machine.^[9]
6. (obsolete) A person who spreads gossip or tales in secret.^[2][4][6]

Word family

• joy buzzer

Related words

• buzz

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster