Fondler

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Someone who touches another person in a way that is unwelcome and sexual in nature
2. An individual who makes unwanted physical contact that involves touching intimate parts
3. A person who engages in inappropriate touching, often violating personal boundaries

Etymology: "Fondler" is a plain English formation: the verb "fondle" with the agent suffix "-er" attached, meaning one who fondles. The verb itself is the more interesting part. "Fondle" is a frequentative of "fond," and "fond" once meant "foolish" or "silly" in Middle English, a sense that survives in the older phrase "fond of" as "foolishly attached to." The sense of "fond" as affectionate came later, so the verb began as a notion of handling something in a foolish, doting way before it narrowed to caressing. The suffix traces back a long way. The "-er" ending descends from Old English "-ere," which itself came from Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic forms ending in "-ārijaz," which were borrowed from Latin "-ārius," the suffix that marked a person connected with a trade or role. English thus inherited this agent marker through Germanic, with a Latin root at its distant origin.