Fouler

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfaʊl.ə/

Definitions

1. An individual who soils or degrades a circumstance or place A person or thing that brings about moral decay or physical messiness Someone who fouls an area or tarnishes ethical integrity
2. A person or entity responsible for making a place dirty or impure
3. An individual who causes pollution or stains an environment or situation

Etymology: Fouler is a plain English formation: the adjective "foul" with the agent suffix "-er", meaning one who fouls, or spoils, places. The suffix itself has a surprisingly tangled ancestry. Its Old English form "-ere" descends from a Proto-Germanic ending that came through Latin "-arius", the source of many English agent nouns such as "butler" and "dinner-" style words, and reached English partly through Old French "-ier". Yet the suffix also appears in the source's second, competing analysis, where it was taken as the comparative "-er" meaning "more", a reading that would make the word something like "more foul". The first analysis, one who does a thing, is the more likely reading for a noun like this.