Manufacturer

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌmænjʊˈfæktʃəɹə/

Definitions

1. A company or person that produces goods in large quantities, typically using machinery in a factory setting
2. An organization that produces and assembles goods on a large scale, often utilizing advanced machinery and techniques for efficient output
3. A business entity that creates and provides products in significant volumes, generally employing machinery and labor in a production facility

Etymology: Manufacturer began as a plain piece of English word-building. The noun is formed from "manufacture" with the agent suffix "-er", a suffix that English has long used to name the person or thing that does an action. Its ancestry runs back through Middle English and Old English to a Germanic suffix, and before that to a Proto-Indo-European root, but the word itself is English-made from the existing noun "manufacture." The surprise lies in the base word. "Manufacture" once meant literally "making by hand," from Latin "manu factum," "made by hand." For centuries it described any craft done with the hands, so a manufacturer was originally a craftsperson, not a factory owner. Only when machines took over production did the word shift toward the large-scale, mechanized sense it carries today.

Synonyms: producer, maker, creator, fabricator, assembler

Antonyms: consumer, buyer, user