Garroter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who strangles or suffocates another, especially using a garrote device; to kill by constriction or strangulation with a wire or cord; a tool or instrument used to execute strangulation
2. Someone who kills by compressing the throat, often employing a strangling mechanism; the act of causing death by choking or tight binding around the neck; an apparatus designed for throttling or garroting victims
3. An individual who eliminates others through strangulation, typically utilizing a garrote; the process of killing by applying pressure to the neck with a ligature; a device employed to immobilize and strangle a person through tightening around the throat

Etymology: The interesting part of "garroter" is the word it is built on. "Garrote" came into English from Spanish "garrote", a term for a stick or cudgel used to twist a cord around someone's neck, and the Spanish execution method that bore the name was an iron collar tightened with a screw. "Garroter" simply adds the English agent suffix "-er" to that noun, so it names a person who strangles, usually with such a device or cord. The suffix has a longer pedigree than the English word itself. It descends from a Latin suffix "-arius", which marked a person connected with a thing or activity, and it reached English through Old French "-ier" and Middle English "-er", with Old English "-ere" as an earlier native form of the same ending. A garroter is therefore a Spanish-derived noun wearing an English ending that has been travelling through Latin, French and Germanic for well over a thousand years.

Synonyms: strangler, choker, throttler