Cleaner

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈkliː.nə/

Definitions

1. A person or substance that removes dirt, stains, or impurities from surfaces, clothes, or objects
2. An individual employed to tidy, sanitize, or maintain cleanliness in homes, offices, or public spaces
3. A material or agent used to cleanse or purify items by eliminating contaminants or debris

Etymology: The surprising twist is that "clean" once meant something closer to "shiny" or "fine" than to "free of dirt." The Old English adjective "clǣne" and its comparative "clǣnra" meant "purer" or "clearer," and the ancestor of the Proto-Germanic root carried the sense of "daintier" or "more splendid," which gives a hint of how far the sense has travelled. English "cleaner," in the sense of a person who cleans, grew from that adjective: the Middle English "clener" was formed by adding the suffix "-er" to the adjective "clean," so the word is built from a base and a simple agent-forming ending. The adjective and the agent noun thus share a root but developed separately. Over centuries, "clean" narrowed from a general notion of brightness, purity and fineness toward the specific idea of freedom from dirt, and the person who does that work took his or her name from the same stem.

Synonyms: janitor, custodian, maid, housekeeper, sanitizer

Antonyms: dirtier, messier