[uh, er] 
| (used to express or represent a pause, hesitation, uncertainty, etc.). |
| 1. | efficiency report. |
| 2. | emergency room. |
| erbium. |
| 1. | a suffix used in forming nouns designating persons from the object of their occupation or labor (hatter; tiler; tinner; moonshiner), or from their place of origin or abode (Icelander; southerner; villager), or designating either persons or things from some special characteristic or circumstance (six-footer; three-master; teetotaler; fiver; tenner). |
| 2. | a suffix serving as the regular English formative of agent nouns, being attached to verbs of any origin (bearer; creeper; employer; harvester; teacher; theorizer). |
| 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. |
| a termination of nouns denoting action or process: dinner; rejoinder; remainder; trover. |
| 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. |
| 1. | East Riding (Yorkshire). |
| 2. | East River (New York City). |
| 3. | King Edward. Origin: < NL Edwardus Rex |
| 4. | Queen Elizabeth. Origin: < NL Elizabeth Regina |
| 5. | emergency room. |
| a hospital area equipped and staffed for the prompt treatment of acute illness, trauma, or other medical emergencies. Abbreviation: ER |
| emergency room n. Abbr. ER The section of a health care facility for providing rapid treatment to victims of sudden illness or trauma. |
| er (ûr) interj. Used to express hesitation or uncertainty. |
| Er The symbol for the element erbium. |
| ER abbr. emergency room |
| er·bi·um (ûr'bē-əm) n. Symbol Er A soft, malleable, silvery rare-earth element, used in metallurgy and nuclear research and to color glass and porcelain. Atomic number 68; atomic weight 167.26; melting point 1,497°C; boiling point 2,900°C; specific gravity 9.051; valence 3. See Table at element. [After Ytterby, a town in Sweden.] |
emergency room n.
The section of a health care facility intended to provide rapid treatment for victims of sudden illness or trauma.
Er
The symbol for the element erbium.
ER abbr.
endoplasmic reticulum
| Er
The symbol for erbium. |
| erbium (ûr'bē-əm) Pronunciation Key
Symbol Er A soft, silvery, metallic element of the lanthanide series. It is used as a neutron absorber in nuclear technology and in light amplification for fiber-optic telecommunications. Atomic number 68; atomic weight 167.26; melting point 1,497°C; boiling point 2,900°C; specific gravity 9.051; valence 3. See Periodic Table. |
er networking
The country code for Eritrea.
(1999-01-27)
| Er erbium |
ER
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Er
(Er), chemical element, rare-earth metal of the lanthanoid series of the periodic table. Erbium is a grayish silver element that also occurs as a series of pink compounds. It had limited commercial uses until the age of fibre-optic telecommunications, when it became an important constituent of the signal repeaters in long-distance telephone cables.
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