Hurter

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈhɜː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A person or entity that causes injury, anguish, or discomfort to someone else is characterized as this type of individual
2. This term describes an individual who brings about suffering, harm, or distress to another person or group
3. An individual who inflicts physical harm or emotional pain on others

Etymology: Before it described someone who wounds others, the ancestor of this term in Middle French was "hurtoir", an object that struck or knocked. Its modern descendant, "heurtoir", still names a door knocker in French, so the earliest sense was of something built to strike against something else. English took the form in Middle English as "hurtour", a borrowing from that French word, and the spelling later settled into its current shape. Alongside that inherited line, English also formed the modern sense from its own verb "hurt" and the suffix "-er", so one spelling now carries two routes that happen to meet.

Synonyms: injurer, damager, assailant, attacker, oppressor

Antonyms: healer, savior, protector, defender, comforter