-er

King Edward.

a noun suffix occurring in loanwords from French in the Middle English period, most often names of occupations ( archer; butcher; butler; carpenter; grocer; mariner; officer ), but also other nouns ( corner; danger; primer ). Some historical instances of this suffix, as in banker or gardener, where the base is a recognizable modern English word, are now indistinguishable from denominal formations with -er1, as miller or potter.

Queen Elizabeth.

a termination of nouns denoting action or process: dinner; rejoinder; remainder; trover .

East Riding (Yorkshire).

East River (New York City).

emergency room.

a suffix regularly used in forming the comparative degree of adjectives: harder; smaller .

a suffix regularly used in forming the comparative degree of adverbs: faster .

a formal element appearing in verbs having frequentative meaning: flicker; flutter; shiver; shudder .

a suffix that creates informal or jocular mutations of more neutral words, which are typically clipped to a single syllable if polysyllabic, before application of the suffix, and which sometimes undergo other phonetic alterations: bed-sitter; footer; fresher; rugger . Most words formed thus have been limited to English public-school and university slang; few, if any, have become current in North America, with the exception of soccer, which has also lost its earlier informal character.

(used to express or represent a pause, hesitation, uncertainty, etc.)

erbium.

Baseball. earned run ( def ).

efficiency report.

emergency room ( def ).