Cottager

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who lives in or occupies a cottage, particularly in a rural area
2. An individual who typically spends leisure time in a small country house
3. Someone who may rent or own a modest dwelling usually surrounded by nature

Etymology: The word is a plain formation: "cottage" plus the suffix "-er," which marks a person connected with something. A cottager is simply someone who lives in a cottage, usually a rural one. The "-er" ending is the same one found in "villager," "farmer" and "Londoner," and it is a very old English device, descending from a Latin suffix that was borrowed into Old French and then into English. The suffix arrived in English through several routes, but the core of it is the Latin "-arius," which signified someone associated with or belonging to a thing. Over time it became one of the most productive ways in English to turn a place or object into a person who inhabits or works with it.

Synonyms: resident, inhabitant, dweller