designer

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /dɪˈzaɪ.nə/, /dəˈzaɪ.nə/, US /dɪˈzaɪ.nɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is from English design + -er, an agent noun from the verb.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who schemes or plots, in a bad sense: 1649 in the OED, the 1640s in Etymonline.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

One who makes an artistic design or a plan of construction is from 1662, the 1660s in Etymonline,^[4][2] and one who originates a plan from 1670.^[4] As an adjective in fashion, bearing the name of a famous designer and so thought expensive or prestigious, it is from 1966.^[2][4] A designer drug, one that mimics an illegal narcotic but has a different chemical composition to escape the law, is attested by 1983.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1649 – a schemer.^[4]
• 1662 – one who designs.^[4]
• 1966 – designer goods.^[2][4]
• 1983 – designer drug.^[2][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who plans the look or working of something, such as clothes, buildings or machines.
2. (archaic) A schemer or intriguer.

Adjective

1. Made by or bearing the label of a well-known fashion designer: designer jeans.
2. Fashionable or trendy.

Word family

• interior designer
• designer drug

Related words

• design

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press