Croper

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who grows and harvests crops, especially as their occupation or livelihood
2. Someone engaged in the cultivation and gathering of cultivated plants for food or other use
3. A farmer or agricultural worker who plants and reaps crops

Etymology: "Croper" is a plain agent noun: a person or thing that crops, built from the verb "crop" with the suffix "-er." The verb grows from the Old English noun "cropp," which meant the top or head of a plant, and the same root gave the bird's "crop," the pouch in the throat where food is stored. Cropping, in the sense of cutting something short, came from the idea of cutting off that top growth. Because "croper" is a transparent formation, it has never needed a coinage story; its meaning follows directly from "crop" and "-er," and it is uncommon enough that its dating and usage are not well recorded.