Fixer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual skilled at arranging solutions to problems or facilitating deals ; a chemical agent used in photography to make images permanent by removing unexposed silver halide
2. Someone who manages or negotiates complex situations or handles behind-the-scenes arrangements ; a substance applied in photographic development that stops the image from changing over time
3. A person who helps resolve issues or secures agreements often discreetly ; a photographic chemical that stabilizes pictures by dissolving undeveloped silver salts

Etymology: A "fixer" is, at heart, simply someone or something that fixes. The word is built from "fix" plus the agent suffix "-er," the same ending found in "baker" or "worker." The suffix itself has a long pedigree: it passed into English through Middle English from Old French "-ier," which came from Latin "-arius," and the Latin form was ultimately inherited from a Proto-Indo-European pattern for forming nouns of people and their trades. The most striking shift is the one from the workshop to the back room. "Fix" meant to make firm or fasten, and a fixer was originally a plain tool-user, the sort of person who fastened things. The sense of an operator who quietly arranges outcomes, such as settling a dispute or greasing a deal, developed later in English, and the photographic sense is a separate technical use from the same root. In photography, "fixing" is the step that makes an image permanent by dissolving the light-sensitive silver that was not exposed, so the picture stops changing.

Synonyms: repairer, mender, restorer