er er err..

March 28, 2006 7:16 PM

I have a word-puzzle that I never figured out -- help me solve it!

For a while, I had this puzzle stuck in my mind. It was told to me by a teacher a few years ago, and I'm reasonably sure that there is an answer..

So -- normal verbs/words in the English language, when some variant of '-er','-r' is added to them, turn into an agent of the original word, right? For example, 'baker' is an agent of 'bake', and 'juggler' is somone who juggles; a fisher fishes, and a 'speaker' does speak.

Apparently there's one or two examples in which the opposite happens, in which a word would be an agent of its '-er' suffixed word. For example, if a 'tamp' was someone who 'tampers' (which it isn't)... or if a 'sland' (there is no such word) was someone who 'slanders'..

Help me find these cases! It's been plaguing me for a while, and I figured AskMe might help..

posted by provolot to Writing & Language (14 answers total)

p.s. The agent doesn't have to be a person, by the way, just someone or something. Just to make that clear.
posted by provolot at 7:17 PM on March 28, 2006

I asked the same question!

The answer is a pest pesters
posted by Robot Johnny at 7:18 PM on March 28, 2006

I still like my answer - a cant canters.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 7:26 PM on March 28, 2006

Wow! I swore I searched for it.. leave it to metafilter to have asked my question beforehand, I guess. Thanks!
posted by provolot at 7:30 PM on March 28, 2006

I suppose a wave could be said to waver, but that only adds "r", not "er".
posted by trip and a half at 7:37 PM on March 28, 2006

Ah yes, I remember that thread. It was noteworthy because of the number of people that either didn't bother to read the question or didn't comprehend what was being asked.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:25 PM on March 28, 2006

Alt alters.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:25 PM on March 28, 2006

It was noteworthy because of the number of people that either didn't bother to read the question or didn't comprehend what was being asked.

Case in point: a cobbler mends shoes. wtf?
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:43 PM on March 28, 2006

It was noteworthy because of the number of people that either didn't bother to read the question or didn't comprehend what was being asked.

If only.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 9:06 PM on March 28, 2006

RJ eventually getting completely fed up was best part of the thread.
posted by team lowkey at 11:55 PM on March 28, 2006

when some variant of '-er','-r' is added to them

Just noticed this part. I win! Woohoo!

(Not that anybody's still reading this thread. Oh, well.)
posted by trip and a half at 12:36 AM on March 29, 2006

Actually, trip and a half, that would be waiver. A waver does wave.

Why is it that in the Netherlands, or Holland, they speak Dutch?
posted by spakto at 10:43 AM on March 29, 2006

Um. just to clarify, spakto, I meant the verb "to waver".
posted by trip and a half at 10:13 PM on March 30, 2006

To be extra clear: a "wave" does "waver".
posted by trip and a half at 10:15 PM on March 30, 2006