Chooser

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈt͡ʃuːzə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. An individual who makes selections from various possibilities
2. A person empowered to determine choices among multiple options
3. Someone who picks or selects from a range of options

Etymology: "Chooser" is about as transparent as English words get: it is "choose" with the agent suffix "-er" attached, meaning simply one who chooses. The verb it grows from has an ancient pedigree of its own, but the noun was built in Middle English from that verb, so its history is really the history of a common suffix working on a familiar root. The Middle English forms show the word's shifting spelling, with variants such as "chosere," "cheoser," and "chesere" all in circulation before the spelling settled. Those forms reflect a period when English spelling was far less fixed, and the same word could appear with several different vowel patterns across manuscripts.

Synonyms: selector, decider, evaluator

Antonyms: rejecter, avoider