Characterizers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Inhabitants or elements that describe or define certain features or qualities of something
2. Individuals or entities that give distinct attributes to a person, place, or thing
3. Agents that represent or illustrate the unique aspects of a subject or concept

Etymology: Characterizer is a plural form of "characterizer", so the story belongs to the singular. The word is built from "characterize" plus the agent suffix "-er", which English attaches to verbs to name the thing or person doing the action. "Characterize" itself came into English from Medieval Latin "charactērizō", which was borrowed from Greek "kharaktērízō", meaning to mark or engrave with a distinguishing stamp. The Greek noun "kharaktḗr" referred to an engraving tool, and later to the mark or impression it made, so the original sense was physical: a sharp tool cutting a distinctive pattern into a surface. The sense of "characterizer" as something that illustrates the distinctive traits of a subject grows from that idea of a distinguishing mark. A thing that characterizes is one that impresses a recognizable identity onto something else, the way a stamp leaves its pattern on wax. Because the word is a formation in English from a verb already in use, its date of coinage is a matter of ordinary derivation rather than a single documented first use.

Synonyms: describers, definers