Buttonholer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person or device that creates buttonholes in fabric or clothing
2. an individual skilled in sewing or tailoring who specializes in making buttonholes
3. a machine designed specifically to cut and stitch buttonholes into garments or textiles

Etymology: A buttonholer is a machine that stitches buttonholes, and the word is about as transparent as English compounds get: a buttonhole with the agent suffix "-er" attached, so it names whatever performs the task. The base word is itself a compound of "button" and "hole", the hole through which a button is pushed to fasten a garment. The more interesting part is the reverse of the usual pattern. Here the machine came first in practical life and the everyday sense of "buttonhole" as a verb followed from the job the machines were built for. Sewing a buttonhole by hand is slow, precise work, which is why the mechanising of it was a notable step in clothing manufacture.

Synonyms: solicitor, interrupter, botherer, approacher, nag

Antonyms: listener, ignore, avoider, recluse, withdrawer