Fosterers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals or entities that provide care and support for children who are not their biological offspring
2. People who facilitate the nurturing and upbringing of those in need, often in temporary arrangements
3. Caregivers who create a family-like environment for children, promoting their emotional and physical development

Etymology: The plural "fosterers" is simply the plural of "fosterer", so the real story is in the verb "foster" and in the ending that turned it into a person-noun. "Foster" comes from Old English "fostrian", meaning to nourish or rear, and its root connects to "food" and "feed" in the sense of providing sustenance. Over time it came to mean bringing up a child who is not one's own, a sense that gave the word its family-care meaning. The ending "-er" is the older and more interesting part. It descends from Latin "-arius", a suffix marking a person connected with a task or role, which passed into Proto-Germanic and then into Old English as "-ere", the ancestor of the modern agent ending. Along the way it also entered English through Old French "-ier" in Middle English, so English ended up with two routes to the same suffix, one inherited from Germanic and one borrowed from French and Latin.

Synonyms: nurturers, guardians, providers

Antonyms: neglectors, abandoners