Chomper

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Something that bites or chews with force ; a person who eats voraciously or noisily
2. Anything that grips or munches with its jaws ; someone who consumes food eagerly and audibly
3. An organism or device that seizes and crushes with its teeth ; one who devours food with exaggerated appetite

Etymology: The word "chomper" is a plain formation: the verb "chomp" plus the agent suffix "-er", meaning something that chomps. The suffix itself has a long pedigree. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European adjective-forming element that passed through Latin "-arius", which denoted a person or thing connected with something, and was borrowed into Old French as "-ier". English took it in through Middle English "-er", and the Old English form "-ere" shows the same ending was already present in native English words such as "baker" and "singer" long before the sound and spelling settled into the familiar form. Because "chomp" is an imitative verb, the suffix is what does the grammatical work here, turning the action into a noun for the thing that performs it. Many English words built this way, from "reader" to "fighter", follow exactly the same pattern, so the formation is entirely regular rather than the product of any single coinage.

Synonyms: biter