Alterer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who changes, modifies, or adapts something from its original form
2. Someone who makes alterations or adjustments to an object, document, or situation
3. An individual who modifies or revises items to better suit specific needs or conditions

Etymology: The word is about as plain as English etymology gets: "alter" with the agent suffix "-er" attached. "Alter" came into English from Old French "alterer" and ultimately from Latin "alterare," meaning "to make other," from "alter," "the other of two." So the root idea is simply difference: to alter something is to make it other than it was. The suffix has a longer journey. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European pattern for forming nouns of agency, which passed through Proto-Italic and Latin "-arius," then into Germanic and Old French, and reached English as "-er" through both Old English and Middle English routes. The "-er" in "alterer" therefore shares its ancestry with words like "baker" and "writer." Put together, an "alterer" is one who makes things other than they were. The modern sense of someone who adjusts clothing or revises items to fit particular needs follows directly from that original idea of making something different.

Synonyms: modifier, changer