Etymologically
Log in

eater

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:31. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈiː.tə/[1]
  • US: /ˈiː.tɚ/, /ˈiː.ɾɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English etere,[2][3] inherited from Old English etere (“eater, consumer, devourer”),[4][5][6] an agent noun formed from Old English etan + -ere.[3][5][6] The OED and the Shorter Oxford analyse it as the verb with the agent suffix -er.[7][8] Etan, the source of eat, goes back to Proto-Germanic *etaną[5][9] and Proto-Indo-European *ed- (“to eat”).[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who eats, a glutton or devourer: in Old English etere glosses Latin vorax (“gluttonous”) in the Lindisfarne Gospels (Matthew 11:19), and ettere glosses devorator (“devourer”) in Luke 7:34.[4][11] Etymonline adds that in Old English it was used especially of a servant or retainer.[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a gret etere was a person with a large appetite, a glutton;[2] the Wycliffite Bible has "bred to the etere" (before 1382) for one who eats.[2] From the 17th century the word was used more and more in compounds naming what is eaten, such as flesh-eater and bread-eater,[5][7] which later gave animal names like anteater and bee-eater.[8] From 1610, in Gervase Markham, it was also used of chemical corrosives that eat away a substance,[7] and Johnson (1755) gives "a corrosive" as its second sense.[12] Phrases with an adjective, as a great eater or a moderate eater, are recorded from 1796.[7] From 1906 an eater was also a fruit, especially an apple, that eats well raw, in contrast with a cooker.[7][8] In late-20th-century British slang it could mean a café or restaurant.[13]

Timeline

  • Old English – etere, eater, devourer, glossing Latin vorax.[4][11][7]
  • before 1382 – in the Wycliffite Bible, one who eats.[2]
  • 1610 – a chemical corrosive.[7]
  • 1755 – Johnson: one that eats anything; a corrosive.[12]
  • 1796 – with an adjective, as great eater.[7]
  • 1906 – a fruit for eating raw.[7][8]
  • 1996 – slang, a café or restaurant.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person or animal that eats, especially in a stated way: a slow eater, a fussy eater.[3][8][7]
  2. In compounds, one that eats a stated food: fish-eater, plant-eater.[7][8][3]
  3. A fruit, especially an apple, good for eating raw rather than for cooking.[7][8]
  4. Something that eats away a material, such as a corrosive chemical.[7][12]

Word family

  • anteater
  • bee-eater
  • Beefeater
  • crabeater
  • fire-eater
  • gnateater
  • honeyeater
  • lotus-eater

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com