Enrober

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An apparatus used to apply a coating to an object can be described as a tool that envelops items in a substance for protection or decoration
2. This term refers to a mechanism designed to cover another object with a specific layer or material for various applications
3. A device that surrounds items with an outer layer of coating material for enhancement or preservation

Etymology: The "-er" in "enrober" is the familiar English agent suffix, which came into English from Old English "-ere" and was reinforced by Old French "-ier", ultimately from Latin "-arius". So the word is simply a machine or person that does the enrobing. The verb underneath it, "enrobe", is the older and more interesting part: it was borrowed into English in the late Middle Ages from Old French "enrober", built from "en-", meaning "in", and "robe", a garment. To enrobe something was literally to dress it in a robe, a sense that survives in the verb's general idea of covering something in a layer. Its use as a term for coating machinery is a later, technical extension of that sense. Confectionery and food manufacture, where a centre is coated in chocolate or similar, drove the specialised meaning, and the noun in its present form is a plain compound of the verb and the agent suffix, with no surprises in its construction beyond that.