Embosser

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mechanical device utilized to create indented or raised markings on surfaces for decorative or functional purposes
2. A device used to press patterns or letters into a material creating a raised effect
3. An apparatus designed to imprint raised shapes or lettering onto surfaces

Etymology: The word "embosser" is simply "emboss" plus the agent suffix "-er", meaning one who or that which embosses, a raised pattern maker. The suffix has a long ancestry: it descends from a Proto-Germanic form that also gave Old English its "-ere" endings, and it reached Middle English through Old French "-ier", which itself came from Latin "-arius", a suffix that meant something like "connected with" or "one belonging to". The verb it is built on, "emboss", came into English from Old French "embocer", a word meaning to put into a boss or to raise into a rounded knob, and "boss" in that sense is the same word as the metal knob at the centre of a shield. So an embosser is, at root, something that makes bosses: raised knobs or swellings on a surface. Only later did the sense broaden to any raised design, whether on metal, paper or leather.

Synonyms: stamper, imprinter, mark