Infusers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A device or person that introduces a substance into another medium, such as flavoring water or oils with herbs
2. A mechanism or individual that enhances the properties of a liquid through the addition of flavors or nutrients
3. An agent that allows for the permeation of one material into another, often used in culinary or therapeutic contexts

Etymology: "Infusers" is the plural of "infuser," a plain formation in English: the verb "infuse," meaning to steep something in liquid to draw out its flavour, plus the agent suffix "-er," meaning one who or that which performs the action. An infuser is therefore literally a thing that infuses, and the tea-steeping sense follows directly from that. The suffix has a long ancestry. It descends from Latin "-arius," which marked a person or thing connected with a task or place, and it reached English through Old English "-ere" and Middle English "-er," with a parallel route through Old French "-ier." English now uses it freely to build agent nouns from almost any verb, so "infuser" joins a large family of words such as "reader" and "writer."

Synonyms: injectors, introducers