feeder

Etymology

It is formed from English feed + -er.^[2][3][4][5] Middle English had feder and federe, from feden (“to feed”).^[6] feed is from Old English fēdan (“to nourish, give food to”),^[3][1] from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OED's first record is a figurative use of the sense "one who tends or feeds a flock", from the Alexander (before 1400–50),^[2] and about 1430 it is found for one who fattens animals.^[2] Etymonline dates "one who feeds an animal" to the early 15th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1350–1400.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense "eater", usually with an adjective (a large feeder), appears in 1550 in Heywood;^[2] Etymonline dates "one who eats" to the 1560s.^[3] Shakespeare used it for a dependant or servant who eats at another's expense (in As You Like It), and figuratively in Henry IV, Part 2, "the tutor and the feeder of my riots", which Johnson (1755) quoted for "an exciter; an encourager".^[2][5] From the 1660s a feeder was a mechanical device that supplies material to a machine;^[3][4] in mining from the early 18th century it was a smaller vein running into the main lode, or an underground spring,^[4] and in Northumberland and Durham pits a feeder was a spring or inrush of water.^[8] By the 1790s the word was used of cattle being fattened and of streams flowing into a larger body of water,^[3][2][4] and by the 1850s of branch roads and railways that bring traffic to a main line.^[3][4] In the 19th century it also became a spoon (in slang), a baby's bottle or a bib,^[2][4] though Green's Dictionary of Slang already finds feeders for spoons in underworld slang in 1718.^[9] In electrical engineering a feeder is a heavy main carrying electric current,^[4] and in radio a line connecting an aerial to a transmitter or receiver.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1400–50 – figuratively, one who tends a flock.^[2]
• c. 1430 – one who fattens animals, especially cattle for slaughter.^[2]
• 1550 – one who eats, an eater.^[2]
• 1579 – one who supplies food to a person or animal.^[2]
• 1600 – figurative use, in Shakespeare.^[2]
• 1660s – a device for supplying material to a machine.^[3]
• 1718 – slang, a spoon.^[9]
• 1790 – cattle being fattened.^[2]
• 1790s – a stream flowing into another.^[3]
• 1850s – a branch road or railway.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or animal that eats, especially in a particular way: Goats are not fussy feeders.^[10][2][4]
2. A container or device from which animals or birds can feed, such as a bird feeder.^[6][4]
3. A person or device that supplies material into a machine or system.^[10][4]
4. A tributary stream or channel, especially one supplying a reservoir or canal.^[10][4]
5. A branch road, railway, air service or the like that links outlying areas with a main network; also used before a noun: a feeder bus.^[10][4]
6. (chiefly US and Canada) An animal being fattened for slaughter.^[10][4][6]
7. A transmission line connecting an aerial to a transmitter or receiver, or a heavy main carrying electric current.^[10][4]
8. (chiefly British) A baby's feeding bottle or bib.^[10][4]
9. (obsolete) A person who depends on another for food; a servant.^[2][4]

Adjective

1. Serving as a feeder; supplying or linking to something larger: a feeder road; of livestock, suitable for fattening.^[6][10]

Word family

• feeder line

Related words

• feed
• food

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins