Drippers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Devices or containers designed to release liquid in controlled amounts over time
2. Items typically used in laboratories or cooking to dispense fluids slowly and evenly
3. Systems employed in various contexts for slow infiltration, often in gardening or irrigation

Etymology: "Drippers" is the plural of "dripper," which is formed from the verb "drip" plus the agent suffix "-er," meaning a thing that does the dripping. The suffix has a long ancestry: it passed from Latin "-arius" through Old French "-ier" into Middle English "-er," while the Old English "-ere" ending came down from Proto-Germanic, so the same ending reached English along two routes. The word's current sense, a device that lets water seep slowly into soil or a system, grows naturally from the literal act of dripping. Gardeners and irrigation engineers use drippers because slow, steady release conserves water and delivers it directly to plant roots, which is why the simple idea of a thing that drips became a technical term.

Synonyms: leakers, droppers, tricklers