Custodian

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kəˈstoʊdiən/

Definitions

1. A person appointed or employed to have charge of, protect, or maintain something such as a building, collection, or institution
2. An individual entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining, protecting, and overseeing the proper condition of properties or collections within a designated area
3. A professional responsible for safeguarding, managing, and maintaining the upkeep of facilities or collections while ensuring their proper functioning and preservation

Etymology: Before it named a museum curator or a park warden, "custodian" was a word for a jailer. Its Latin ancestor, "custodia," meant a keeping, a watch, a guard, or even a prison, and it grew from "custos," a watchman or guardian. The sense of a person charged with protecting something was built into the word from the start. English took the word through a shortening of the Latin "custodianatus," a longer form that itself grew from "custodia." The result is a term that sounds like it was formed from "custody" plus the suffix "-ian," but the Latin source shows the link runs through the older Latin noun rather than directly from the English word "custody." The surface resemblance to "custody" is real, and the two words do share the same Latin root, "custos." So the modern sense of a keeper of collections and buildings is a fairly direct extension of the original idea of watching over someone or something.

Synonyms: guardian, caretaker, keeper, warden, steward

Antonyms: vandal, destroyer, neglector, abandoner